The Aura Prince
by AzureZephyr
Summary: My name is Satoshi, I was proclaimed dead as a child, to be protected from those who would harm and use me for their own. I left for a journey with my father to train and become the best and to be worthy of the title, "The Aura Prince"
1. The Beginning

**_The Aura Prince_**

** Chapter 1**

**The Beginning**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon in any form, I only own games of it :D and flames will be used to warm my hot chocolate**

**AN: Please look towards the end of the chapter to help with a poll for pairings for this story. Another note, this story is AU since Sir Aaron is alive and if I spelled the name of the queen and the castle wrong please tell me. I wasn't sure exactly what the names were and I was going off from what I heard from the Movie.**

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"Aaron, I'm worried, our son has yet to open his eyes! Its been nearly a MONTH since his accident!" The queen cried out distressed as she looked into the bed with an unconscious six year old with sunshine yellow locks lay there. "the doctors say his body is slowly dying because of all the injuries he's sustined."

At first it looked as if he wasn't breathing unless you got a closer look. Two pokemon stayed tearfully by their masters side. A small Pichu nuzzled its cheek against the small boy's own while the Riolu sat determined by its side watching his master intently. A Lucario off the the side and leaning against the walls also observed the young child, his face never betraying any emotion except for the crimson eyes.

Aaron sighed as he dismissed the doctor they had called in to check up on their son, in any hopes of getting some response him. When the doctor had tried everything he knew, he apologized as he saw himself up. Walking up close to his wife he wrapped his arms around her as she leaned against him.

"I'm worried too, its been several weeks too long nothing is working." he sighed as he looked out the window in their beloved son's room.

Two weeks prior, their son had been out training with his friend in the training fields on the castle grounds. He had wanted to try and work with the aura like his father had shown him and his best friend who also happened to be his personal body guard was watching him as she trained also. All of a sudden a thundering sound had been heard and the two children looked up and let out a cry of surprise. Apparently the Rapidash and Ponyta had gotten out their corrals and were stampeding around the castle grounds. The young prince grabbed his friend's hand and tried to run off to the side when she fell and tripped over the ends of her kimono and a scared look crossed her face as the stampeding horse pokemon neared.

Without any concern for his own safety the prince ran back and practically slingshotted the girl away from him and off the path of the pokemon. Unfortunately when he tried getting out of the way also he slipped and had disappeared under the kicked up dust from the pokemon. It was her scream of terror that had alerted the nearby guards that were trying to round up the stray pokemon saw her and when she explained the guard's faces were horrified and they quickly brought out their pokemon, a Machamp, Kadabra, Meganium and a Venusaur. The guards quickly gave orders to their pokemon and Venusaur and Meganium let out a spray of sweet scent while the Machamp using its strong four arms to try and get through the stampede. The Kadabra waiting for a signal from the Machamp to act and it wasn't long when the Machamp let out a loud yell that the Kadabra disappeared, teleporting for a split second into the herd and grabbed the fallen prince. The herd by this time had calmed down by now and the guards with the Machmap and Venusaur kept the herd in line back to the stable as the guard with the Kadabra rushed the fallen girl and the prince to the medical wing where the head doctor there alerted the Queen and Sir Aaron.

He gazed out into the distance until his eyes landed on the Tree of Beginning. Suddenly a slight sliver of hope came to his mind. He gripped Lynn's hands surprising her and making her look up at him.

"Aaron?"

"Lynn, I know this may be a long shot but what if we took him to the tree of beginning? maybe Mew can help us!" he said looking determined. The queen blinked at her husband but then nodded.

"We've tried everything available to us here," the queen said as she agreed with him. "Let's go then."

The preparations were made quickly as Queen Lynn changed out of her usual gown and into something more suited for traveling.

"Lady Lynn? what's going on?"

The queen looked down and saw cute girl in a pink kimono looking up at her with big eyes as she held onto a naginata.

"We're going to try and save my son Jeanette." she said as she patted the girl's head.

At that comment the girl's green eyes watered. "I'm sorry Queen Lyn!! Its my fault Sato-sama got hurt!" she cried as she dropped her naginata to cover her eyes as she cried.

" Oh Jeanette, its not your fault! My son cares for you and wanted to protect you!!" she said wrapping her arms around the young girl calming her down. " now why don't you go back to your training I don't think your mother will be very pleased you left and my son wouldn't want you to be sad."

"Yes Lady Lynn." the young child said as she wiped away the last of her tears and headed down the hallway after picking up her dropped weapon, as the queen continued her walk to the place she and her husband were going to meet.

"My lady are you sure this is wise?" an elderly maid asked concerned.

"We have no choice, modern medicine isn't working and I refuse to let my son just leave me." she said.

"I understand my lady." bowed the servant. "I wish you well."

Lynn hurried off to the balcony, her boot's heels echoing along the vastly empty hallway. When she opened the doors, she saw Aaron in his guardian uniform waiting for her as his Pigeot perched on the railing waiting also. She went over to the bed and gently picked up the small child off of the bed much to the distress of the two small pokemon.

Lynn smiled gently as she scratched the two on their heads.

"It'll be alright, Aaron and I are going to try and bring your master back. Just be patient a bit longer." she said.

"Pichu-pi...." the small mouse pokemon said its small eyes tearing, before the riolu next to him patted him assuredly on the back.

"Rio!"

"Thank you, we'll hurry back as fast as we can." the queen said as she made her way over to Aaron.

"We must hurry." Lynn said as she held onto her son tightly. Aaron nodded and grasped her wrist and pulled her onto the giant bird and flew to the tree of beginning. Queen Lynn held tightly onto both her son and husband.

'Please, by Arceus let this work please...I want my child to live...' the queen silently prayed as she closed her eyes.

* * *

She soon felt the bird descending and looked up to see the mountain formation that made the 'Tree of Beginning'. The Pigeot flew around areas around before it stopped at a cliff letting the two off.

"Thank you my friend, we'll be back soon." Aaron said as the Pigeot cooed and took off. "Follow me Lynn." Aaron added as he grasped Lynn's and they walked through a series of tunnels throughout the formation soon they finally made it to the 'heart' of the Tree of Beginning. Lynn gazed around at the energy being emitted from the core of the tree.

"**Mew**!!" Sir Aaron called out, surprising Lynn for a moment **"I call you to help me please save ****my son!**

"**Mew please come out! I don't wish to be separated from my son**!" Queen Lynn shouted, trying to help her husband call mew out.

A sudden great cry pierced the low humming of the core and the two looked towards the entrance in the upper corner as a ho-oh appeared. But then it suddenly glowed and shrunk down to the size of a small floating pink cat creature, said creature floated down and gazed at the two.

"Mew, please help us...no modern medicine has worked and we come to you for your help." pleaded the guardian.

The legendary pokemon seemed to understand as she motioned with its tail to follow her as she flew through a different entrance. Not wanting to get lost in the maze of tunnels the two quickly hurried after the psychic pokemon. They followed mew through different tunnels, jumping down some, crossing dangerous paths and even being pushed upwards by a strong gust of wind that naturally blew through the rock formation. Soon mew brought the two humans to a darken green area, where it pushed away some foliage to reveal a small glowing pool. Aaron and Lynn stood at the edges and looked from the pool the the pokemon. Mew motioned with its tiny arms for them to place the boy in the pool.

"You ready Lynn?" Aaron asked as he took hold of their still silent son. Lynn just nodded as she stood right next to him and watched as he kneeled down and gently placed their son in the water with just his face above.

As soon as the baby had been place the water glowed a light turquoise and soon the baby was glowing the same color too! Before their very eyes, they saw the once golden locks on their son's head turn into a dark ebony color as the eyes that were once closed opened to reveal golden amber orbs. Their son's face scrunched up and blinked as he stared blearily at his parents.

"Ma...mama? da-addy?" he asked albeit weakly, but it was music to their ears. Pulling their son out of the water they hugged him tightly.

"Our baby...our precious baby..." Lynn cried tears cascading down her face as Aaron handed their over to her and she hugged him dearly.

"Mama? why...you....crying?" their son asked.

"Because I"m happy you're alright...we were so worried!" Lynn replied back smiling through her tears as she ran a hand through the now dark locks of hair.

As Aaron observed the two happily, he couldn't help but have a nagging feeling in the back of his head."But I wonder," he asked himself, "why did his hair changed not to mention that neither of our eyes are amber." Aaron finished saying the last part outloud.

//_Because the pools sensed that he is a special child, one destined for great things..._// a soft and gentle voice said in their minds.

Both looked up to see Mew floating there.

"What do you mean mew?" Lynn asked as she settled her tired son in her arms, happy and grateful to the pokemon for giving her son back.

//_Your son will have 'talents' that no ordinary human will have. He'll form unbreakable bonds with people and do the impossible_//

Lynn and Aaron looked at each other then at their sleeping son. Exactly what kinds of talents did their son have and why were they getting a bad feeling as the psychic pokemon continued speaking in their minds.

//_But be warned, because of these gifts he'll be targeted by many that wish to use him for their own needs. A mind so young, innocent and pure cannot be tainted._//

Aaron frowned as Lynn gasped.

"Then he needs to disappear for a while to be trained. I will not have someone coming into the castle and taking him." he growled.

"But what of the others? the whole castle and the people know that we not only have a son, but twins!" Lynn stated, " the only thing that the people don't know is that one of them nearly died" Lynn added worried.

"Then we will use that to our advantage. Only a few trusted will know the truth but to the rest of the people he is dead." Aaron said as he turned towards Lynn and grasped her shoulder. "I know its wrong for us to lie to the people, but I believe what mew say is true. If he truly is blessed with certain abilities I don't want to put him at risk for someone to kidnap him under our noses."

Lynn bit her lip. She hated to lie to her people but for the sake of their child she didn't want anything to happen to him.

"How long are you going to be gone? and where will he stay when he comes back? he'll have to blend in when he comes back and have proper training for the throne..." Lynn trailed off.

//_He may stay in the Tree of Beginning, the pokemon residing here will be like guardians to him_// Mew said.

"What? but why?" Aaron asked surprised at the offer as he was looking back at the legendary pokemon.

//_They shall sense he is different then most humans, as he has also been blessed with some of my power when he emerged in the pool, that alone will be enough._// she replied.

"Well we have no other choice do we Aaron?" Lynn asked sadly.

"No, but I promise I'll bring him back home when I can to visit his mother and brother." Aaron said kissing Lynn on the cheek gently. The two thanked Mew one last time as the pokemon saved them the trouble of walking back by teleporting them to the cliff where they had landed. She watched as the Pigeot took them back to the castle.

//_Be well and strong...Chosen One...._//

* * *

Back at the Castle....

Several head guards, maids and others were confused on why all of a sudden the King and Queen had called them to their son's private chambers.

"**Be silence please!**" Aaron called out catching everyone's attention.

"Sir Aaron just why have you called only a few of us here?" one of the guards ask.

"Because this is something that not everyone in the castle nor outside these walls should hear or know about." he said seriously.

"What of the prince?"

"Yes! Is the prince alright?"

Aaron smiled at the group. He looked behind him and motioned for the queen to step forward with a sleeping prince in her arms.

"Our son is fine, with the help of mew he is back." Sir Aaron said.

There was a cheer throughout the crowd but was once again quieted by Sir Aaron. He then explained WHY only a selected few were selected to come to the meeting and the plan to follow through after the explanation.

"Are you sure Sir Aaron?" The captain of the guards asked.

"Very, mew may be a playful mischievous pokemon but she sounded certain." Aaron replied.

"What of the other young prince? Shouldn't he know of his twin's state?" a concerned guard asked.

Aaron sighed. He and Lyn when they had returned from the Tree of Beginning, had almost forgotten about Satoshi's twin brother who was out of town training with his pokemon in the country side with Aaron's mother.

"We...will tell him when he returns." Aaron said finally then let out a small smile, "even if we tried lying to him, he could easily tell we weren't being honest with him. He is Satoshi's twin brother."

"So you're going on a journey to train your son in his abilities and aura?" another guard pipped up.

"Yes that's correct. We will be gone for what looks like a few years," Aaron said, "but we will visit when we can. I can't have my son forget his home now can I?" he added trying to lighten up the mood. There were a few chuckles in the room before a small voice raised above the others.

"Sir Aaron! Please take me with you!!"

Everyone looked down and saw Jeanette pushing her way to the front looking earnestly at Sir Aaron. The captain of the guard rushed up to his daughter that had spoken out.

"Jeanette! I thought I had taught you better manners then this!" he said agitated as he managed to get a firm grip on his daughter, only to have her turn around and glare. Well, glare as much as a six year old could.

"But father! I need to redeem myself!" the little girl cried out surprising her father as her fists tighten and were shaking. "even though Lady Lynn said not to worry about what happened, I still feel as if its MY fault he ended up like that! And I'm his body and best friend!!"

"Jeanette..." sighed her father.

"Please Sir Aaron!" begged Jeanette crying as she grasped her kimono tightly in her small hands. "let me come with you and protect Sato-sama!"

Sir Aaron looked at her for a moment before he turned to her father.

"Captain?"

"Yes Sir Aaron?"

"What would you say if your daughter traveled with my son?" He asked making Jeanette look up surprised.

The captain sighed. "Her mother would demand that she should be training still and stay, but since the accident she's been depressed and feels that she failed her duty to the prince." he replied looking at his daughter who bowed her head.

"But I think this would be good for her, to see the world and learn new things. Not to mention your son would like someone his own age to be around too." the captain added. "So I believe that it would be a wonderful idea for her to go with you." he finished smiling at her daughter.

"Thank you father, I promise I won't disappoint you." Jeanette said wiping her eyes and grinning broadly at her father.

"You never disappointed me my daughter." the captain replied.

"Are there any other questions?" Queen Lynn asked looking around. No one said anything and she nodded.

"My husband, son and now Jeanette will be leaving tonight once the moon is high. We are not to let anyone other then ourselves know of the situation. Please also do not forget the plan my husband has mentioned."

"Yes my lady!!"

* * *

The news spread like a wildfire throughout the kingdom of the young prince's tragic 'death'. Many people were upset and mourned for the lost and sent flowers to the castle for their regards . People were calling it a cruel fate for someone so young to have met their end so soon. The people had also heard rumors of their king and guardian leaving, and that brought up another set of rumors.

"Oh my, he must be terribly upset! I would be too!"

"He must want some time to himself, a child's death is no easy thing to forget."

"I hope Sir Aaron does feel better."

"I hope the queen and the other young prince are handling this alright..."

"But he's out of the country, what terrible news to hear upon returning."

"Perhaps Sir Aaron is taking this journey for some enlightenment?"

"I think he just wants some space for the atmosphere. I mean it can't be very pleasant in the castle after the prince's sudden departing."

"Just give him some time after all, it is said that time heals all wounds..."

The rumors and news going through the town, soon nightfall came and under the guise of the moon, three figures one holding the reins to a Rapidash and two Ponytas were about to leave the castle when the queen stopped them only for a moment.

"So where will you go?" Lynn asked as Aaron removed the hood of his cloak with his free hand to gaze at his beloved's face one last time.

"We will travel to the harbor, there we'll take a boat to the Kanto region. I'm going to take him through all the regions and meet up with my brother later in Sinnoh." Aaron replied smiling sadly. They both knew the journey was going to be a long one and there was only so much letters and calls could do.

"I see..." she replied before she kneeled down and was at eye level to the children.

"Jeanette, please take care of my son and always be there for him okay? Not just because its your duty but because you're his best friend." the queens said.

"Yes Lady Lynn. I'll do my best." Jeanette replied.

"And my little prince...please take care..." Lynn added as she wrapped her arms around her son one last time.

"I will mama, me, Jeanette, daddy, Lucario, Pichu and Riou will be fine." the young prince said as he hugged his mother back. "I'll miss you too mama, tell Anki I'll be back!"

"I'll miss you too my little prince and I'll be sure to tell your brother." she replied kissing his forehead before she stepped back.

"We better get going, we don't want anyone stopping us if we are to make it to the boat on time." Aaron said as he helped the children onto the Ponyta's back and got onto the Rapidash himself. The two children nodded and with a slight kick to the pokemon's sides they soon disappeared into the night.

Queen Lynn stood there watching them until they were completely out of sight "Arceus protect them..." she quietly prayed before she headed back inside.

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Well, that's the first chapter, so please tell me what you think. Any critique, suggestions, spelling errors seen please tell me so I know what to look out for. Doesn't help I'm doing this so late too ahahaha. I'm using Ash's japanese name for a reason that'll be seen in later chapters but for now he'll be going by Satoshi. (As if some of you hadn't figured that out when I had wrote "Sato-sama") Oh and if you don't recognize Jeanette she was Ash's fourth battle in the Indigo Plateau. I had read a really good fanfic describing her really well before writing this, that I wanted to use her in this fanfic. Oh and i know how sometimes its annoying that people use japanese terms but I'm just going to use 'Anki' for big brother instead.

As I said before at the beginning, I want to know who should be paired with Ash/Satoshi. I'm pretty much open to any pairing for him...well...with a few exceptions I've read a lot of other fanfics with Ash paired with different people so I have no real preference. **Except for contestshipping**. That is one pairing I'm not breaking up in this fanfic, I'm keeping May paired with Drew. **So please refer back to my profile page to give your votes on who Ash should be paired with here are the choices: **

**Misty**

**Anabel**

**Dawn**

**Zoey**

**Jeanette**

And that's about it for this chapter! Thank you again for taking time to read this and submit your votes on the poll! **(( and please be fair don't just vote for the same person twice))**


	2. School Time Fun

**_The Aura Prince_**

** Chapter 2  
**

**School Time Fun  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon in any form, I only own games of it :D and flames will be used to warm my hot chocolate**

**AN: Thank you everyone for their input and suggestions on how to fix the first chapter. This chapter is just featuring mainly the other characters going to be used in the story besides those that appeared in the first chapter. For the poll results of who Satoshi/Ash will be paired with here's the status thus far:**

**Misty:6  
Dawn:3  
Jeanette:2  
Anabel: 1  
Zoey:1**

**So its pretty close between Misty and Dawn but its still the beginning and the votes can go either way. So enjoy the chapter and remember to go to my profile page to vote on who you think Ash should be paired with.**

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_Outskirts of Cameran..._

"After all this time...we're home." a young figured said looking over his home. "looks like a few things have change, the town looks bigger."

"That's to be expected, " the young figure's friend next to him replied. "although I can't wait to see everyone's reactions when they see us."

"Hey what's with the huge crowd near the palace?"

"Hmm, well today is a celebration of our ancestor that stopped the ancient war." the tallest of the two replied.

"Right, when they battle to see who becomes this years 'Aura Guardian'"

"Hey, why don't YOU enter Sir? That'll be a real nice reintroduction!" one of the younger figures exclaimed looking at the tallest one.

"Don't you think that's a bit much? Wouldn't just having Pigeot send a message to the palace be good enough?" the taller one replied.

"You're no fun Sir, it would be much more interesting if you just entered and then revealed yourself at the end."

".........Or I could just wait and see who's the winner and then challenge the winner then." the taller figure replied smirking before running down the hill, his cloak billowing after him.

"And you wondered where I got my sense of humor from." Laughed one of the younger figures making the other one sigh before they followed the tallest figure down the hill.

* * *

_**Kusanagi Academy....**_

_((outside in the fields...))_

"Crap...I can take photos, but my drawing skills...suck..." grumbled an auburn haired teenager said as he tried flipping his sketch around. He looked at the disfigured thing on his paper while his friends leaned over and laughed.

"Ahahaha what were you trying to draw? A Sealeo or an Ekans?" snickered a darker haired brunette as he looked over his friend's attempt.

"It was suppose to be a Seviper!! I'm a photographer not an artist!" the auburn haired boy retorted scowling at his attempt.

"Yeah you just aim and press a button. That's really difficult." a green haired boy stated rolling his eyes making the first boy glare at him.

"It IS hard when you're trying to get the perfect shot!!" he replied before he started counting off his fingers the excruciating details for a good photo, making the others groan. "your lighting has to be right, if its too bright it'll just ruin the picture and if its too dark you lose the point, you need the right lens for the shot your taking, then you need to make sure you don't disturb the pokemon and...**OW**!!" the auburn haired cried out rubbing the back of his head as he glared at the person who stopped him.

"We've heard this lecture a **thousand** times already Snap," the brunette said closing his sketchbook. "so save us the trouble and be quiet?"

"Anyway, class is almost over so you wouldn't have time to redo it anyway." laughed the blonde of the group as he stood up dusting his pants for dirt.

"Huh? Really why?" Snap asked looking at his watch. "we usually have another half hour before we get out."

"How dense can you be?" snapped the dark purple haired youth that had stayed silent until now. "if you haven't realized, today there's a tournament at the palace."

"Oh yeah, classes are cut short today I almost forgot." Snap said as he stood up too, stretching a bit. "I still think it sucks they won't let us participate."

"For once I agree with you..." the purple haired one muttered as he picked up his materials around him and shutting his sketchbook.

"It's because they want us to observe others as they're battling besides other students, or something like that." the blonde one added before the brunette grinned and wrapped an arm around the blonde surprising him.

"Yeah, it has **nothing** to do with our little prince's sixteenth birthday." he added grinning.

"Shove off Gary, " the blonde replied but was grinning back at his friend. "and my birthday isn't until next week. Its the celebration for my father's ancestor who stopped the ancient war."

"I find it a bit weird your father was named after his ancestor...I mean really?" Gary asked as the blonde shrugged.

"My grandmother had a sense of humor and thought it would be an honor if one of her children was named after his ancestor." the blonde replied.

"Oh right, doesn't your dad have a twin? He got the normal name didn't he?" Snap added tapping his chin thoughtfully.

At the mention of the word twin, the green haired one elbowed Snap roughly in the ribs as the brunette whacked the young photographer's head with his sketchbook again.

"What's the big idea you guys!?" Snap hissed, "do I have a piece of paper that says 'HIT ME'!?"

"You idiot!! you had to mention THAT!" hissed the green haired boy glowering at the oblivious boy. "

"Did you forget that he lost **his **you-know-what!?" the brunette added making Snap suddenly realize what he had said.

"Oh crap..." Snap said paling at his forgetfulness as the other two whacked him again for good measure.

"Isn't your grandmother a bit...eccentric Prince?" the green haired one asked quickly changing the subject and making the blonde laugh sheepishly, as he hadn't heard the hushed conversation between three of his friends.

"Drew, when its just us just call me Hiroshi!" the prince stated exasperated, " I may be the prince but that doesn't mean you have to bow or call me Prince, Hiroshi-sama or your highness. Besides she's not **that** eccentric! Although, her Mr. Mime could vacuum your face off if you're not careful " Hiroshi added under his breath.

"Ha, it'll take a while for you to get me to bow to you, **your highness**_**." **_Drew replied laughing at the face Hiroshi was making.

"Let's just get going you losers before we get left behind." the purple haired one said as he headed back to the building.

"Oi! Wait for us Paul you Abomasnow!" Snap shouted running after the purple haired teenager as the others followed after them at a much slower pace.

~*~*~*~*~

_((Inside the Home Ec room...))_

"Come on you guys hurry up!" whined a blue haired girl with her head in her hands as she watched the other girls at her table stirring their pots.

"Geez Dawn, just because you can cook doesn't mean everyone else can." grumbled a short haired red head girl, trying to concentrate on decorating her food in front of her.

" She just wants to check out the cute guys that'll probably show up during the match." laughed a brunette as she was watching the oven with her food.

"You're just saying that May because you already **have** a boyfriend." Dawn replied grinning as May's face turned as red a magmar.

"He-he-he-he's not my boyfriend!!" May nearly cried out making the other girls grin at how red she was.

"Right..." the older redhead replied sarcastically, "and those roses he always seems to have with him? he seems to only give them to you."

"Um well..." May tried to argue before Dawn interrupted her.

"Not to mention he seems to go 'out of his way' to give you tips as you're practicing your contest moves..." Dawn added. "he just seems to 'accidentally' run into you when you're training."

"and when anyone else asks him for help he usually just brushes them off. " finished the younger red haired girl. "yeah he REALLY doesn't like you at all."

"Shu-shut **UP** you guys!!" May hissed as he glared at them while waving her oven mitt covered fist at the laughing girls.

While most of the girls continued to pick on May and her argument about her crush, the older red head looked over to the teal haired colored girl in pigtails that hadn't said a word.

"What's up Duplica? Usually you jump in with us to tease May about Drew." the red head asked as Duplica sighed.

"Oh its nothing, " Duplica replied making the other girl frown as she put her hands on her hips.

"Come on Duplica, we've been friends for years and you have yet to hide anything from me." she stated in a matter of fact tone.

"Well, I'm just wondering how his highness is going to deal with his birthday this year." she replied making the girl confused.

"But his birthday isn't until next week, why are you worrying about it now?"

"Misty, whenever his highness's birthday comes around he disappears for the entire day along with the Queen!" Duplica replied irritated surprising the other. "and the palace acts as if its normal! How can it be normal when the two remaining royal family go off and disappear!?"

"Really? Don't you have to go with him since you're his body guard?" Misty asked frowning as Duplica shook her head.

"I'm not ALLOWED to go because its some private royal family business only." she replied. "but the thing is the captain of the guard is allowed to go!! I am his highness's body guard so I should be with him incase something happens!"

"Hasn't the prince said anything about where he and the Queen disappears to?" Misty asked.

"No, I even tried following them once but I got suspension from the captain and put on stable duty for a month." Duplica replied grumbling.

"I'm sure the prince would tell you if he could." Misty said trying to calm the fuming girl, "I mean it IS royalty only and how long have you been the Prince's bodyguard?"

"about four years..." Duplica mumbled.

"Maybe its some sort of tradition for the two, like a family moment." Misty said patting the other girl's shoulder, "you know the Queen, she wouldn't do anything to worry her people and neither would the Prince."

"Yeah I guess you're right Misty. Thanks." Duplica said smiling at her friend.

"Yay! Its done, now we can pack up these cookies and go to the tournament!" exclaimed a happy May. The girls looked over to the young brunette as she pulled out her creations. The young red haired girl couldn't help but whistle impressed.

"You've been practicing haven't you May?" she asked as she looked at the cookies. "they look just like real pokemon."

"Hehe thanks Zoey, mom's been helping me a lot since my first attempt." May replied as she set the pan on top of the stove for the cookies to cool. Dawn snickered at the memory.

"Yeah, you burnt the cookies so bad the kitchens smelled horrible for almost a week!" she laughed making the other girl go red embarrassed.

"It was my first time cooking!!" May wailed, "I didn't think there was a difference between baking power and baking soda!"

"Well at least now you know." Dawn stated still grinning at the sour look May was throwing her. Duplica and Zoey on the other hand were taking a closer look at which pokemon May's cookies were the shape of.

"Hey Duplica do some of these pokemon look familiar?" Zoey couldn't help but smirk as she pointed to the last five cookies on the bottom.

"Hmm...well they do look vaguely familiar, now who do I know that has **these** particular pokemon?" Duplica replied sarcastically, getting the other girl's attention.

"Huh? Lemme see, lemme see!!" Dawn exclaimed poking her head over Zoey's to look. She had to use her hands to muffle her laughter after she took a look at the cookies.

"Wow May, a Flygon, Absol, Masquerain, Butterfree and is that a....**Roselia**!?" Misty said leaning over the other girl's shoulder. "I wonder what you're planning on doing with **those** cookies?"

"It-it was a bet!!" May replied hotly, looking at the unconvinced looks on the other girl's faces. "Drew made a bet that the next batch of cookies wouldn't look **or** taste good!!"

"Right, and say we believe you, what would happened if you won or lost?" Dawn asked as she grabbed a plastic bag and put her cookies inside to snack on later.

"If I lost I would have to..." May replied mumbling the rest under hear breath.

"We don't speak timid May, speak up!" Duplica said.

"If I lost the bet with Drew I'd have wear one of Harley's eccentric costumes that he makes in the home economics room at school for a week." she replied. The other girls couldn't help but shudder.

"Wow, now that was something you would never be able to live down..." Duplica grimaced, "he has an, **interesting** sense of style."

"I don't see why you find that weird Duplica," Zoey said, "you do have that hobby of yours of imitating others."

"Yeah, but when **I** do it I'm actually convincing and don't look like an idiot." Duplica retorted. "remember how I nearly fooled everyone by dressing up and acting like Nurse Joy? It was only until one of breeder instructors, Brock, came in and saw that it wasn't the real Nurse Joy."

"Well, he **IS ** really the only person I know that can tell each Joy and Jenny apart." Misty replied. "which I don't know wether to find that amazing or creepy..."

"Oh! But did you hear the rumors about Brock actually getting a **date**?" Dawn spoke up as she remembered over hearing something a while ago.

"Eh? He seriously got a date that wasn't out of pity?" Duplica asked. Dawn nodded and was about to continue when she realized, they had gotten off the original topic and swiftly turned to May who was just about to escape.

"Nah uh, not so fast May, you never explained to us what would happened if you had won the bet with your boyfriend." Dawn stated.

"He's not my boyfriend!!"

"Tell that to us when your face isn't imitating a tomato." Duplica replied sweetly, making May scowl at her.

"So? Tell us what Drew would have to do if you won the bet!" Dawn asked curiously.

"If I won...well...you know that teamed battle we're going to have next week?" May asked, as the other girls nodded.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, if I won the bet then Drew would have to be my partner for that tournament." May replied trying not to grin as some of the other girls broke out laughing.

"Oh that's a good May!! You two get to do some quality bonding!" laughed Duplica.

"I always thought it was weird that Drew would avoid becoming your partner, "Misty said grinning widely, "this'll be really interesting when it happens."

"Not to mention all the poor fangirls that'll be crying rivers when they find out Drew's already has a partner." Zoey added.

"Better watch your back May, one of the girls might get vengeful!" Duplica said wiggling her fingers as May rolled her eyes.

"Like they haven't tried that before." she muttered, as she started to put the cookies into a bag, except for the last five she put in a different bag. "so before any of you have time to make fun of me for the cookies, you ready to go?"

"Hmm...we cleaned up the stove, bowl and pan sheets," Misty said counting off the stuff they had to do before they left the classroom," put away the ingredients...yep! We're done."

The girls grinned at each other and made their way out of the classroom and out of the school to meet up with the guys in the front of the school.

~*~*~*~

"Geez, what took you girls so long?" Snap moaned rubbing his arm, "these guys decided to use me as a punching bag again!"

"What did you say this time?" Zoey asked looking at the poor photographer.

"Something stupid again, but for once I'm wit him," Gary replied shrugging nonchalantly, "what exactly took you girls so long? Usually you're here before us"

The guys blinked when the girls held out bags of cookies.

"We got to make cookies today since its the tournament today!" Dawn stated.

"Yeah and May told us about this **interesting** bet she has with Drew there." Misty added snickering at how red May was becoming.

"**Misty**!!!"

"You had a bet with May?" Hiroshi asked looking at his green-haired friend. Drew turned his head to the side so that the others couldn't see the tinge of red on his face.

"It's just something May blurted out when she force fed me her poison last time." he replied.

"You're exaggerating again Drew..." May grumbled.

"No I'm not, I almost thought I had to got to the hospital to get my stomach pumped." Drew retorted before May shoved her cookies for him in front of his face surprising the green haired student.

".....they look normal..."

"**Of course** they look normal!!" May huffed, "I've been practicing!"

"And exactly how many kitchens did you blow up to get them like this?"

"That doesn't matter!!"

Drew gave her a look and May muttered something under her breath.

"What was that May?" Drew asked rather smug.

"It was two!! the one at my house and one of stoves in the school." she replied.

"You know I was wondering what that sudden '**boom' **came from when we walked by her house." Dawn said looking at Zoey.

"Ignoring the process, just EAT one already!" the brunette girl stated, shaking the bag of cookies in front his face before he grabbed it out of her hand and eyed the treats warily.

"If it'll get you to stop force feeding me these things and prove that **I'll** win the bet then fine." Drew said as he opened the bag and took out the cooking that looked like his Roselia. _'I hate to say this but these actually look too good to eat.' _he thought to himself before he bit into the cookie.

The others watched, waiting for his reaction as he chewed and slowly swallowed.

"Soooo?" May asked as she couldn't help but wonder if her cookies were any good.

"Hmm...no stomach cramps, cracked teeth, indigestion, charcoal taste..." Drew replied counting off as May was starting to get ticked. "overall...they're decent." he replied shrugging before he tossed the rest of the Roselia cookie in his mouth.

"You jerk you know you like them, you just won't say it." May muttered under her breath looking away.

"Did you say something?" Drew asked as he finished off the Roselia cookie and put the rest of his cookies in his bag.

"Nope!" May replied her mood doing a complete flip," now don't forget your end of the deal since you ate my cookies..."

"...and lived to tell the tale." the green haired boy replied finishing the girl's sentence.

"**DREW!!**"

"Fine fine, " Drew replied rolling his eyes at the indignant girl. "I'll be your partner for the upcoming double battle for training class next week."

"That's it?" Snap asked looking between the two. Drew turned and narrowed his eyes at the disappointed photographer.

"Did you expect something else Todd?"

"It's SNAP! And yeah, maybe you being her servant for a week or letting her dye your hair or something!" He retorted.

"Aww you mean I could've changed his hair color!?" May whined jokingly as she eyed Drew's smooth green locks. "I had wondered what his hair would be like maybe with I dunno a shade of purple..." she started but ended up laughing.

"And what's so funny about purple hair?" Gary asked as he glanced over at another purple haired classmate of theirs standing off to the side and taking no part in what he saw was a 'meeting of the brainless'.

"Ahahaha!I just realized that if I had dyed Drew's hair purple he would probably almost look like harley." she snickered.

"You know I could just take back the bet if you keep this up May.." Drew replied as she shot a dirty look at the guys as they were trying not to laugh at the image.

"No way you promised!!" May replied stopping her laughing to look at Drew.

"Though, I think Harley likes hanging around you guys. He does follow you two a lot when you're in your coordinating classes with Miss. Solidad." Misty said tapping her chin thoughtfully,

"Maybe he has a crush on May!" Dawn blurted out suddenly giggling, only to be yelled out rather forcefully by two offended parties.

"**ARE YOU CRAZY!?" **

"Take that back Dawn! There is no way Harley likes me like that!!" May shrieked.

"Well what about time he dressed up in..." Duplica started but was silenced by a smothering glare from the bandana wearing girl.

"**Don't you dare finish that sentence..." **May growled in a low-tone, making Duplica sweat.

The teal haired bodyguard laughed nervously as she nodded.

While the girls were busy trying to clam down a raging may, the boys took this time to tease the green haired coordinator.

"Wow Drew, is that **jealously** I hear?" Hiroshi asked grinning.

"I never knew you cared so deeply about May!" Snap added smirking.

"You going to protect her from the big, bad Harley?" Gary added.

"We're going to be **late** if we keep dawdling here." Drew grounded out trying to get the subject changed. He was surprised himself when he just shouted out like that with May. _'Just the thought of that Harley crushing on May...' _Drew thought to himself before shuddering a bit at the thought.

Gary looked at his watch and his eyes widened at how much time had gone by since school had let out. "Crap you're right, but don't think you're off the hook yet Roselia-boy." Gary said turning towards the girls as Drew cursed under his breath behind him.

"Oi girls if we want to catch the rest of the tournament then we better get going!! we already missed half of it already!"

"EH!?" was the unanimous reply from the girls as they looked at their own watches.

"Oh crap he's right!! we gotta move it!!"

"Aww man!! I can't believe we missed the first battles!!"

"H-hey!! Duplica hold on!! you don't need to drag me!!"

"Hey don't leave me behind you guys!!"

The guys all watched as the girls panicked and dashed off towards the castle where the tournament was being held.

"We better catch up before we lose them in the crowds." Hiroshi said as he jogged after the girls.

"No kidding, knowing them they'd probably end up splitting up by accident trying to find our seats." Drew added as he and the others went to catch up.

**

* * *

**

**Preview of Chapter 3:**

_"What the hell was that..."  
_

_"I wouldn't be surprised. He certainly will make a grand entrance."  
_

_"Its a bit unorthodox isn't it?" _

_"Is that pikachu talking to a tree?"_

_"You!? When did you get back!?"  
_


	3. Return of the King

**_The Aura Prince_**

**Chapter 3  
**

**Return of the King  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon in any form, I only own games of it :D and flames will be used to warm my hot chocolate**

**AN: Okay the poll result so far is really surprising. Not that I'm complaining I was really surprised who's in the lead now lol. Well here are the results so far:**

**Jeanette:11  
Misty:7  
Dawn:5  
Anabel:2  
Zoey:2  
**

**See? I wasn't kidding when I said anyone could take the lead in the polls and Jeanette shot up right up there! The story is finally moving along a bit so enjoy this chapter of "The Aura Prince" As usual I own nothing but the plot to this fanfic, sorry if my pokemon battles kinda suck still working to improve that! Oh and don't forget to continue voting if you haven't already!**

"Speech"  
_"thoughts"  
"Pokemon talking"_

_

* * *

  
_

When the group finally arrived at the palace they hurried inside for any place available to see the remaining matches. They couldn't see any open seats near the front row or anywhere else near the battlefield, but Dawn pointed up near the upper levels where there was plenty of room for them to stand and watch the battles. They made their way up the stairs and into the area where they got a bird's eye view of the current battle.

"Hey can any see the elimination board and how many matches are left?" May asked as she watched the Misdrevous using psychic as a Ninetails was using flamethrower.

Hiroshi looked around and saw the said board and craned his neck and could make out how many people were left in the battle to become this years "Aura Guardian".

"After this battle, they will be about two matches left. The last semi-final and the final" Hiroshi said looking back at his friends.

"Urgh, I can't believed we missed so many matches." Misty groaned and she watched the Ninetails take the victory when it used its confuse ray on the ghost pokemon and then launched another flamethrower at its back.

"Well if you guys didn't get so involved in the bet between May and I we could've have gotten here faster." Drew retorted.

"Why? Wanted to have a **private** moment with May there?" Gary shot back smirking.

Another argument broke out between the two again as they fired shots at each other, while the girls were half watching the argument and the other half drawn to the semi-finals. Off to the side the silent one of the group eyed them before rolling his eyes.

'_Pathetic losers...sometimes I wonder why I even stay around this group...'_ he thought to himself, just as he was about to go back and watch the semi-final match to see who would battle in the final, he thought he saw a shadow pass by over him. Narrowing his eyes he tired to follow what he could but the glare of the sun was too much and he lost sight of whoever or whatever was on the top of the arena.

"What the hell was that..." he muttered looking around for any signs of the shadow.

"Paul? What's up?" Hiroshi asked seeing that the purple haired member of their group was frowning. Well, frowning more then usual.

"Nothing, it was just a Tailow." he grunted back to the blonde prince as he turned his attention back to the battle, just in time to see the Weavile freeze its opponent with an ice beam.

"If you say so Paul." Hiroshi replied, wondering what had managed to catch Paul's attention even for a brief moment.

The flagman announced the final battle between the masked knight's Weavile and the armor smith's Ninetails. Both trainers waited for the signals, once the referee saw that the two were ready the flags came down and the battle commenced.

"Go Weavile!!" Duplica shouted as the Weavile dodged a flamethrower and countered with a night slash which was a direct hit.

"Come on Ninetails get him!!" May shouted, cheering for the fox pokemon.

The Ninetails let loose a will-o-wisp at Weavile but it fought back by getting rid of the blue flames with a few shadow balls causing an small explosion and using the cover the Weavile fired an ice beam at the ground turning the field into an ice rink, which had taken the Ninetails by surprised as it had suddenly lost its footing, making it slip around.

"Now Weavile finish it with shadow ball!!"

"Ninetails come on get up and fight back with flamethrower and melt the ice!!"

But the command came to late. The Weavile skated towards the Ninetails as it was powering up a flamethrower to attack, and let it loose but the Weavile used the momentum from skating on the ice to launch it into the air and come sailing down with a point-blank shadow ball to the top of the Ninetail's head knocking it out. The referee blew his whistle and held up the green flag to the victor. The crowd roared as the clapped as the winner grinned and waved to them.

"Wow, I thought Ninetails would've won with the type advantage." May said as the trainer of the Ninetails returned it to its pokeball and went to shake hands with the winner.

"Type advantages aren't everything." Gary shrugged, "you'd be surprised what some pokemon can do against their type advantage."

"Like what Gary?" Duplica asked.

"Well, for example you know the Johto gym leader Bugsy?" Gary replied.

"Ugh..bugs..." Misty muttered shuddering at the thought of the creepy-crawly pokemon.

"Okay...what about Bugsy?" May asked, "he uses bug pokemon and they're weak against fire."

"Well he and his Scyther had developed a way to repel flame attacks." Gary replied as some of the girls were listening in as well as some of the guys. "Scyther has an attack called 'swords dance' and what Bugsy has done is he's taken that and used it as a defensive move. While Scyther is spinning and increasing its attack, the speed of spin has made it able to repel flame attacks."

"Right, of course you would know that." Snap replied rolling his eyes, "you probably came up with a strategy against it."

Gary smirked, "Maybe, but I"m not going to say anything." he replied as the Queen stood up and almost immediately everyone went quiet to hear what the Queen was going to say.

"I would like to give thanks to all of our wonderful participants this year for giving us another brilliant tournament for the place of Aura Guardian!" Queen Rin announced and the stadium clapped and shouted loudly as they had enjoyed the battle themselves. Queen Rin raised her hands and everyone quieted down. She then turned her attention to the remaining participant of the tournament.

"Now if you would be so kind to remove your mask and follow one of the referee, we may begin preparations for the ball-" Queen Rin started, but was interrupted when her right hand maid whispered something into her ear, stopping her from finishing as she turned to look at her a surprised looked etched on the Queen's face.

"Are you sure?" she asked, "does he really want to do that Matilda?"

The maid Matilda could only grin back at her Queen. "He does tend to have a bit of a mischievous side to him. I don't see why not. I believe you-know-who probably had a hand in convincing him to do this though." Matilda replied making Queen Rin daintily cover her mouth as she giggled.

"I wouldn't be surprised. He certainly will make a grand entrance." the Queen replied turning back to the spectators who were wondering what was going on.

"May I have everyone's attention once more please! It seems we have an unexpected surprise guest. They will not reveal themselves at the moment, but wishes to battle the winner of the tournament." Queen Rin proclaimed getting murmurs from the crowd, many unsure of the turn of events. "Do not be worried, they are completely trustworthy and I can vouch for them. So what do you think?" the Queen added looking down at the battlefield, waiting for the winner's thoughts on this.

"If I may your majesty, would it be alright if I switched pokemon?" the masked knight replied to the Queen.

"You may, so you agree to battle then?"

"I do your majesty!"

"Then let this special battle commence, You may enter now!"

The whole stadium was quiet, as everyone's attention was turned towards the other side of the battlefield were two cloaked figures entered the stadium. The taller of the two stood at the edge of the field while the shorter one crossed over to stand in the middle of the field. The masked knight eyed the two, since both the trainer and obviously pokemon had entered the stadium both cloaked, the knight couldn't gauge anything on them.

"Well, let's make this a good match shall we?" the knight finally said returning Weavile to its pokeball and calling out a second Weavile.

"If both trainers are ready?" the referee called looking at the two. Seeing them nod he raised the flags and brought them down.

"You may begin!"

"Weavile move in with quick attack and then night slash!" the knight commanded. The Weavile practically disappeared as it used the still frozen part of the field to its advantage to gain speed. Once it was at the edge of the ice, it raised its claw which glowed an eerie color as it was coming closer to the cloaked pokemon.

"Use detect then use force palm!!" the cloaked trainer instructed, just as Weavile looked like it was going to hit their pokemon. The cloaked pokemon surprised both the Weavile and its trainer by shooting out its arm and grabbing Weavile's wrist before the attack hit it and its other arm glowed as Weavile soon took a direct hit from the force palm as It was launched backwards skidding on the battlefield.

"Don't let it recover! Use force palm again!"

"Weavile get up and try another night slash to remove that cloak so we can see what we're up against!!"

Both pokemon followed their trainer's instructions as the cloaked pokemon dashed forward, its limb glowing with another force palm just as Weavile got up from its place on the ground and managed to get out of the way in time. Now it looked like both pokemon were dancing around each other as Weavile was using night slash to try and tear off the cloak the other pokemon had on while the other was avoiding it and trying to get back with its force palm.

"I wonder why the Queen allowed the stranger to fight...its a bit unorthodox isn't it?" May said looking at the others.

"Yeah, this is the first I've heard of this happening. I wonder what makes this guy so special that the Queen allows it." Gary muttered.

"Maybe he's a friend of the family from the islands?" Misty suggested. "there have been times when leaders from the Orange Archipelago come to negotiate the trading between the kingdom and them."

"True, but I don't think it could be any of them. I mean, why would they want to appear all of a sudden and battle in a cloak?" Drew replied rubbing his chin thinking as he and the others observed as the two pokemon weren't getting anywhere and were given a different strategy.

Weavile had moved to using shadow ball and quick attack, but it seemed like the other pokemon was faster then it as it kept dodging the attack and wasn't countering but looked like it was powering up or something.

"Hey Hiroshi do you have any idea who it is?" Snap asked turning to the prince. Before he could reply though Duplica interrupted.

"You shouldn't address his highness so casually..." she stated frowning making the blonde prince sigh.

"Duplica, they've known me for years! It's alright if they do it when its just us." Hiroshi explained but Duplica still didn't like it.

"But isn't it rather rude to address the prince like that?"

"You really need to lighten up Duplica." Drew said rolling his eyes and ignoring the smothering glare he was receiving. "if Hiroshi wants to be called casually shouldn't you listen to him and just say his name rather then his title?"

"Fine...but I still think it's still wrong..." the teal haired girl muttered under her breath but her eyes widened when she turned back to the battlefield just in time to see that the two pokemon were going to launch one final attack.

"Weavile use Shadow Sphere!!"

"Use it now! Aura Sphere!!"

"**USE WHAT!?"**

The whole stadium gaped as a the cloaked pokemon threw out its arms and letting loose the aura attack it had been powering up. The two spheres collided with each other in the middle of the field creating another explosion. Everyone was at the edges of their seats, or if they were in the balcony were leaning as far out as they could to get a better look. Then through the smoke everyone saw a blue glow coming out and the aura sphere hadn't been affected when it had hit the Shadow sphere and hit Weavile directly embedding it into the wall before falling to the ground knocked out. The referee raised its flag at the cloaked stranger.

"The match goes to...uh...goes to..." the referee said, realizing he never gotten a name or any sort of identification from the trainer. "excuse me but how should I call this?" he asked turning to the stranger. If the hood of the cloak was down, everyone would've probably seen the figure grinning.

"Well that's easy," he replied grasping his cloak and pulling it off as his pokemon followed the suit. "just call it as you see it."

The referee, the trainer and practically the whole stadium were frozen in shock to see who it was under the cloak. There on the battlefield, standing proudly was Queen Rin's husband who had traveled away from the castle for ten years with his loyal Lucario, returned once more. It was only a moment before the whole stadium erupted in a loud uproar, cheering loudly for the return of their King and guardian.

"He certainly likes to make an entrance doesn't he milady?" the servant Matilda said giggling behind her hand as the mime jr was twirling around on the rail in front of them mimicking the crowd clapping.

"He does doesn't he?" Queen Rin replied smiling happily at her husband down below. "I'm afraid to say he picked that up from him."

"I wouldn't be surprised Milady," Matilda replied.

"By Arceus did you know that was going to happen Hiroshi!?" Drew exclaimed, for once losing his cool demenor as he was still in shocked by the event that had just occurred.

"I had a vague idea..." the blonde haired prince replied mysteriously.

"Vague idea my derrière," Misty replied, "you knew exactly who that was!"

Hiroshi just kept that knowing grin on his face as he shrugged.

"What about you Duplica? Did you know?" May asked looking at the Prince's bodyguard. The teal haired girl mutely shook her head. The auburn haired girl frowned and waved a hand in front of her face.

"Duplica? Hey you there? Say something!"

" What do you want me to say May!?" Duplica growled angrily, catching the other girl surprised.

"Hey calm down Duplica, what's wrong with you?" Gary asked frowning at the other girl, "aren't you happy that Hiroshi's dad came back?"

"I AM happy, I'm just upset that I didn't know about this!" Duplica shot back as she glared at Gary before leveling her glare to Hiroshi. "why didn't I know of this Prince? I'm your bodyguard so shouldn't I be informed of things like this!? Don't you trust me??" she said crying out the last part.

Hiroshi walked over and placed his hands gently on his bodyguard's shoulders. "Duplica, I would've loved to inform you about this, but my mother and Sir Averus had made it a concern to certain people before you had come." the prince explained, "it was my father's decision before he had left the castle that only certain people would know."

Duplica sniffed and looked at the blonde Prince. "But even then I couldn't be inform?"

"I'm sorry Duplica but rules are rules, hardly any get bent. Especially if my father requested it." Hiroshi replied smiling albeit grimly. Duplica nodded after a bit.

"Alright, I understand now prince..." she replied smiling back up at the blonde prince.

Back on the field the opponent was still in shock as Aaron made his way over to the knight with Lucario following after him.

"You put up a great battle. I hope you don't mind if take the position of Aura Guardian." Aaron said laughing as he held out his hand. His laughter seemed to snap the knight out of his daze before he removed his helmet and revealed that he was actually a she!

"It was an honor to battle against you Sir Aaron." She said putting out her hand and shaking. "this is a battle I'll never forget."

"I'm glad. I hope you'll still attend the dance in the castle tonight." Sir Aaron asked.

"I'll be there your highness." she replied before giving him a bow, "thank you again for the battle."

With that said she turned and bowed to the Queen before seeing herself out. Queen Rin stood up once more and the stadium went quiet.

"The tournament of the Aura Guardian is now complete! I'm please to announce that this year's Guardian of Aura is none other then my husband, Sir Aaron!!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well that was certainly an interesting turn of events wasn't it?" May asked as they left the stadium.

"Yeah, who would've thought the King would've returned in such a way." Dawn added giggling.

"So what now?" Drew asked, "the ceremonial dance isn't until later this evening so we have plenty of time to kill."

"Why don't we go to the park and just relax?" Hiroshi asked.

"But don't you have duties back at the castle Hiroshi?" Snap asked as the blonde prince shrugged.

"Not really, the most I have to do is just get dressed for the ball and that doesn't take very long." he replied. "besides the park sounds nice. We haven't been there for a while."

Everyone agreed that was a good idea but as they were heading towards the park to hang out for a while, their purple haired companion had other ideas.

"Hey Paul aren't you coming with us?" Drew asked as he spotted the other student heading in the other direction.

"You guys can go and waste your time at the park. I'm going home to train." was his gruffed reply before he continued on his way.

"Hasn't he ever heard of the concept of fun?" Dawn asked frowning at Paul's retreating back.

"I think training IS his idea of fun." Snap replied dryly.

"Oh well, his loss. Come on let's go already!!" May said grinning.

"You just want to go there because of the food." Drew stated as he walked passed May, ignoring the daggers from May's eyes.

They made it to the central park in Cameran where there was a statue of the King's ancestor in the middle. There were a lot of people and Pokemon in the park, just relaxing or playing with one another. Once the group found an open area in the park that was near the , they each released a few of their pokemon.

"Come on out Ditto, you too Chatot!"

"Sparky, Happy, Zippo go!"

"Azurill, Horsea, Corsola, Politoad, Psyduck let's play!"

"Blaziken, Beautifly, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Eevee come on out!"

"Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu, Ambipom time for some fun!"

"Roselia, Masquerain, Absol let's go!"

"Glameow come join in!"

"Umbreon go!"

"Kecleon, Hoothoot, Smeargle out ya go!"

The group of pokemon appeared instantly from their pokeballs happy to come out and play with each other for a while. Some like Umbreon, Azurill, Smeargle , Absol and Roselia stayed with their trainers while the others went ahead and of them. The water Pokemon decided to jump into the lake, while Happy, Chatot and Hoothoot played tag in midair. Blaziken went off to the side to practice its moves while keeping an eye on the younger pokemon with the other fire type Zippo. The rest of the pokemon were playing hide-and-seek with Kecleon, trying to find him as he blended in with the scenery.

"Hey Dawn, when did you get an Ambipom? I thought you had a Buizel?" May asked as

Beautifly landed on her head resting as she was looking at Dawn's pokemon running around chasing after Snap's Kecleon. May grew more interested when the girl hadn't answered yet but blushed.

"Heeeyyy what're you hiding Dawn?" May asked again, poking the girl who fidgeted.

"It-its nothing!! I just kinda traded Buizel for an Aipom and then later Aipom evolved into Ambipom!! That's it!!" Dawn replied quickly, the blush still present on her face.

"Uh huh, then why are you blushing so hard if it was just a trade?" May asked grinning, getting revenge on the blue haired girl for bugging her about Drew. Before Dawn could answer Zoey overheard what they were talking about.

"Oh there was this group we ran into a few times when Dawn and I would meet up to talk about how our contest training was going during our trainer's break from school." Zoey replied.

"How do you know him Zoey?" Dawn asked, looking at her red haired friend. Zoey grinned back scratching her cheek with a finger.

"Well, there were a few contests I entered and he would enter too. At first I didn't like him because he was training for the gyms but was entering contests." she said.

"So what made you change your mind?" May asked.

"Well he said he wanted to see what it was like, as one of his Pokemon seemed really entranced by some of the coordinators training their Pokemon," Zoey replied, "later I apologized for being rude to him. He's a really nice guy once I got to know him."

"Ooooo does Zoey have a crush on this mystery guy?" May teased but was surprised when both Zoey and Dawn shouted at the same time.

"**NO!"**

May blinked and looked at Dawn. "Wow, defensive much? Were you two close to him or something?" she asked.

"No...we just ran into him several times and ended up becoming friends." Zoey replied.

"Besides even if I wanted to get close to him that girl wouldn't let me..." Dawn grumbled under her breath.

"Did you say something Dawn?" May asked.

"Nope nothing at all!!" Dawn replied plastering a smile on her face, but Zoey had heard the last part.

"So what was this guy's name?" May wondered looking at the two.

"Kazuki Tajiri..." Dawn replied almost dreamily.

"Dawn? Hey Arceus to Dawn!! Come in Dawn!!" May yelled waving a hand in front of her face. "wow, she's really out of it, was this guy really that impressive?"

"Well, he was really kind and compassionate with his pokemon. He did help her train a bit from what she told me when we met up." Zoey replied sweating at the glazed look at Dawn's face. "and he stood out since he always had a pikachu hanging on his shoulder instead of inside the pokeball."

"A pikachu outside of its pokeball? Are you guys talking about a trainer?" Misty asked carrying Azurill in her arms. Corsela, Politoad and Horsea were enjoying the lake and occasionally splashing the other pokemon when they ran passed them.

"Uh huh, Dawn was telling us about how she got an Ambipom." May replied, "she said she got it when she traded it with this guy she ran into a few times. A Kazuki Tajiri..."

"Wait...Kazuki Tajiri? Albeit tall, dark spiky hair, amber eyes a pikachu hanging around his shoulders?" the older red head asked frowning.

"Huh yeah...do you know him TOO Misty?" Zoey asked surprised.

"Just a little bit..." she replied mumbling, "he had gotten separated from his group in a forest in Johto when my sisters dragged me with them, so I would watch the pokemon while they went sale shopping."

"Sounds just like 'em..." May said dryly hearing many stories on how Misty's older sisters would drag the youngest with them just so she would care for the pokemon before they performed and so they could go shopping. "makes me glad I just have an annoying younger brother instead of sisters."

"Anyway how do you know Kazuki?" Dawn asked frowning at Misty.

"...We fought over a Totodile." Misty grumbled. "Apparently we both had tossed our pokeballs at the same time and when we went over to see if we caught it. We literally bumped into each other and argued who's pokemon it was."

"So what happened?" May asked.

"Well we had a three on three match it was tied up to the last one. But...in the end he ended up winning the Totodile..." Misty said. "but it wasn't a complete lost."

"Eh? Why's that Misty?" Zoey asked.

"Because thanks to him when we battle, my Poliwhirl ended up landing in a nearby riverbank and there must've been a king's rock somewhere along the bottom, because the next thing I saw come out was Politoad." the water trainer replied smiling. "so even though I lost Totodile, I gained Politoad."

"Wow that's so cool and lucky Misty!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Yeah, but I didn't see him after that. He had to meet his guardian after the battle." Misty added sighing, "and I was kinda hoping he'd stay around for a while so I wasn't stuck with my sisters."

As the girls were talking about their travels before they came to the school, the pokemon by now were tired of trying to find Kecleon and were playing by the edges of the lake.

"_I'm tired..." _panted Piplup as he fell to the ground tired, "_making Patchirisu 'it' is exhausting"_

Sparky agreed with the penguin type pokemon, _"No kidding, its like someone gave him an extra dose of sugar today."_

"_Too...fast....and hard to catch..."_ panted Bulbasaur.

"_You think that's hard? Try playing hide-and-seek with Kecleon!"_ Squirtle groaned on its back. "_I thought I had him until I tripped over Ambipom's tails!"_

The said purple monkey looked annoyed at Squirtle. "_You're the one who didn't see it when you were running! And who said you almost had Kecleon! I was closer!"_ Just as it looked like the turtle and monkey pokemon were going to argue Glameow and Bunery got between them.

"_Okay guys stop it, we ALL are tired so let's just rest while our trainers talk."_Glameow said using her tail to hold Ambipom back as Bunery was holding Squirtle back.

"_Glameow's right. Besides I thought you said you were tired Squirtle?"_Bunery stated making the small water pokemon back off.

"_Fine let's rest and...isn't Psyduck a bit too close to the water?" _Squirtle suddenly said as the others turned their attention to the lake. They all knew that despite being a water type, Psyduck STILL couldn't swim no matter how many times Misty's tried teaching him.

"_He's fine, he hasn't fallen in and besides the water pokemon are there so they can catch him if he falls in."_Ambipom said.

Just as the two tailed monkey pokemon said that a white blur also known as Pachirisu was curled up in a ball and rolling down a hill in a race against Eevee who was also curled up in a ball. The two had nearly crashed into Snap who was taking pictures with the small camera he always carried with him, and into Blaziken who jumped away just in time. The group of pokemon watched as the two pokemon continued rolling down the hill and were nearing the lake where the two ended up crashing into Psyduck who was staring at the water's edge and flung over where Misty's pokemon were playing and into the middle of the lake.

"_Wow...what happened?"_a dizzy Pachirisu asked, it was confused when the other pokemon gathered by the water's edge.

"_Pachirisu! you and Eevee ran into Psyduck who's in the middle of the lake now!!" _Bunery exlaimed waving her arms around.

The squirrel pokemon along with the vulpine pokemon stared at the lake where Psyduck was flailing around, catching the other pokemon's attention. Squirtle, Piplup along with Misty's pokemon immediately swam as fast as they could to get to Psyduck before he drowned.

"_Come on you guys!! Hurry!!"_Ambipom shouted jumping around.

"_Go go go go!!" _Bulbasaur joined in.

"_I didn't think we were going that fast to throw Psyduck THAT far out!!" _Eevee wailed looking worried at the yellow duck pokemon.

"_Neither did I, I hope they get there!!" _Pachirisu added.

"_Damn, I knew I should've tried to stop them but I was too surprised to see them bowling out of nowhere!" _Blaziken growled.

"_Its not your fault, we didn't think this would've happened."_Glameow piped up trying to cheer up the fighting type pokemon.

Their constant chatter and grouping towards the lake's edge were noticed by their trainers who were wondering what was going on, until Snap ran towards them and explained what had happened.

"AH! Psyduck!!" Misty cried running towards the lake's edge clutching Azurill tightly in her arms. She made it to the edge and stood next to some of the pokemon there. "Where is he!? I don't see him in the lake!!"

Both pokemon and trainers tried to look for any signs of the yellow duck but when they saw nothing Misty shoved Azurill into Dawn's arms and was about to jump in herself when May grabbed her arm stopping her.

"May! Let me go Psyduck is in danger!"

"Misty look! Isn't that Psyduck right there?"

"What!?"

The teen stopped struggling against the other girl as she looked towards the water's surface and there breathing heavily was psyduck flat on its stomach.

"Oh he's alright..." Misty said as a wave of relief came over her.

Drew knelt by the waters edge and frowned as the water pokemon popped up. "Yeah, but who saved him? It wasn't any of our pokemon." the green haired trainer stated.

"Are you sure?" Misty asked frowning as she looked at the pokemon in the water, "Squirtle, Piplup, Corsela, Politoad, Horsea...waitaminute if they're here then who..." she started but trailed off as everyone saw the pokemon that had saved Psyduck surface.

"A...a...a La-Lapras!?" May stuttered staring at the graceful pokemon carrying Psyduck to the shore.

"Wow, we must be really lucky that the Lapras was under the water when Psyduck was flailing." Snap said.

"Hey Gary does the lake branch out into the ocean?" Drew asked looking at the male brunette.

"Not that I know of, I'm not that good with geography." he replied. "but I do know that if a Lapras is in the lake then it has to belong to a trainer." While the others were surprised at the fact there was a Lapras in the lake Hiroshi was in deep thought.

"_I if that Lapras belongs to who I think it does...then that pokemon shouldn't be that far behind."_ The prince thought to himself as he watched the Lapras interact with the others.

They watched as the Lapras finally got to the water's edge and leans forward and Misty quickly takes Psyduck off the Lapras's head.

"Thank you so much for saving him." Misty said hugging a tired Psyduck close.

"_You're welcome. I was surprised to see a water pokemon that couldn't swim."_ Lapras replied.

"_We don't know why either but that's our Psyduck."_ Corsela spoke up. "_but like our trainer said, thank you for saving our friend."_

"_Its no problem. I just hope this doesn't happen again."_ Lapras replied back.

"_We'll keep a better on him next time!"_ Blaziken assured Lapras. Lapras gave the fire/fighting type pokemon a smile and the pokemon couldn't help but blush.

"_Hey Blaziken are you blushing?"_ Duplica's Ditto asked from her shoulder.

Immediately the pokemon denied.

"_I am not blushing!! Its-its just rather warm!!"_ He replied.

"_Right...a fire type feeling warm...that's a new one." _Bulbasaur said. "_Right gu-"_ the plant pokemon added looking at the others for an agreement but ended up sweating. Piplup, Horsea and Squirtle were looking at Lapras with hearts in their eyes.

"_Oh brother..."_ Bulbasaur sighed exasperated at the sight of the male pokemon.

"_Why are they going to crazy of Lapras?"_ Bunery asked albeit miffed as Glameow shrugged as much as a cat could.

"_I don't know, just part of her charm?"_ she replied sarcastically.

Although before any of the pokemon got a bright idea to try anything, a load roar broke their trance and the grouped looked around frantically wondering where the noise came from.

"What in the world was that!?" May cried looking around, "it sounded really angry..."

"I think anything that roars that loudly is always going to be mad." Drew muttered, but still curious on who or what made that sound.

They soon got their answer when a shadow was descending on them, coming closer at a rapid pace towards where they were standing near Lapras. It made the group quickly clear away from Lapras, not wanting to end up being a landing pad for whatever was coming their way. When the figure landed, a tall burly orange draconic body with narrowed blue eyes glared at the group as its wings were pulled in and its tail twitched, just waiting for someone to get close. A few minutes passed before it was satisfied the group wasn't going to do anything and turned towards Lapras.

"Yep...I knew that Charizard would come looking for Lapras..." Hiroshi said to himself, smiling.

"Huh? Did you say something Hiroshi?" Duplica asked.

"Ahaha its nothing Duplica, I just thought those pokemon looked familiar." he replied.

"You're familiar with the Lapras and Charizard?" Duplica asked frowning.

"A little bit..." Hiroshi replied, leaving the conversation at that.

"Is it just me, or does that Charizard seem rather protective of the Lapras?" Dawn asked.

"It's not just you, you saw how it made us scatter away from it unless we wanted to be beneath its feet." Zoey replied.

"Ahahaha I think some of our pokemon are upset that the Lapras has a guardian." giggled May pointing to Blaziken, Squirtle, Piplup, and Politaod who look depressed.

"Love is a fickle thing..." recited Drew as Snap rolled his eyes.

"And you would be the expert on it wouldn't you rose boy?" the young photographer said, looking away when Drew was glaring at him.

The group watched as there was a small exchange between the two between the two before Lapras nodded and disappeared under the water, and supposedly swimming away from the group. Once Lapras was out of sight, the Charizard threw one last glare at the group before taking off himself.

"Come on let's follow it!" Dawn said returning most of her pokemon except for Piplup.

"Are you crazy? Do you WANT that pokemon to BBQ us?" Drew hissed as he returned his pokemon.

"Well no, but don't you want to see who the trainer is of the Charizard and Lapras?" she replied.

"How do we even know they HAVE the same trainer?" Duplica.

"Oh they probably do." Hiroshi stated surprising everyone.

"You know the trainer!? Misty exclaimed while Hiroshi shrugged.

"I did say probably, so I could be wrong." He replied with a mysterious grin on his face.

"Right...I think we should be safe as long as we keep our distance from it." Gary said turning his attention back to the group.

The others agreed and returning most of their pokemon back to their pokeballs before they trailed after the Charizard through the park. It wasn't long before they ended up in another clearing where they came upon a battle between two pokemon training against each other as Charizard laded a bit away near the shores so he wasn't in the crossfire and seemed to be waiting for Lapras to return back.

"Hey look that's Buizul that's battling that other pokemon!" Dawn exclaimed as she watched her old pokemon use aquajet to get some speed over its opponent, but Buizul's opponent which happened to be a Sceptile dodged it and used Leaf blade to block the aquajet as it came at it again.

"Hey look there's another one by the tree!" May noticed looking at the biggest tree in the field.

They moved around to the other side of the field that was closer to the tree where the yellow pokemon ended up being a Pikachu looking up towards the branches talking.

"Is that Pikachu talking to a tree?" Snap asked as the boys groaned and hit the back of his head.

"Don't be stupid, obviously there's someone or a pokemon that its talking to." Gary replied rolling his eyes.

"Do you think it's these pokemon's trainer?" Drew asked.

"I don't know, but if is they have some really strong pokemon..."

"Well I'm going to go over there and see if it is the trainer." Misty stated. "I want to thank them for their Lapras for saving my Psyduck."

"Okay, but we're going with you." Zoey stated. "you saw how that Charizard was eyeing us when it came for Lapras, I don't you to take any chances of being attacked."

Misty nodded, "Thanks guys." she said and slowly made her way out of the foliage with the others following with her. Buizel and Sceptile stopped their battle as they took notice to the rather large group. But when the water weasel pokemon saw its old trainer, he wondered what she was doing here.

"_You don't have to be so tense, I think the group is good."_ Buizel said to Sceptile. The green lizard pokemon looked at Buizel with its yellow eyes.

"_What makes you so sure Buizel?"_

"_The fact that among them is my old trainer and she's a good person."_

"_And the rest?"_

"_Well, they can't be all bad if my old trainer and her friend is there with them."_

The group were getting close at the tree but before they could someone behind them let out a small gasp of surprise.

"My, my I didn't expect to see you so soon...little Imite." a soft but smug voice said behind the group. Duplica twitched at the name and swerved around to yell at the person who called her that.

"Dammit don't call me that-" she started but stopped when she saw who had said that name "You!? When did you get back!!?"

Everyone turned around and saw a young girl about sixteen years old with long dark purple hair tied with a yellow bow. She wore a light red and white kimono top with dark floral patterns on it with a dark red hakama. On her shoulder she had some sort of weapon wrapped up and a belt with pokeballs hung from her waist. In her arms she carried a honeycomb shaped pokemon in her arms. Her green eyes brighten when she recognized a few other people in the group.

"Hmmm? I believe a little while ago...and I didn't think I'd be seeing you girls anytime soon." she added. Before the said girls could reply Duplica turned on them with an irritated look on her face.

"Wait, how do you girls know Jeanette!?" Duplica cried.

" Technically we don't..." Misty replied dryly.

"We ran into her a few times when we met her friend." Dawn finished.

Duplica blinked before turning slowly to look back at the girl smiling innocently at them.

"All the times you came back with Sir Aaron, I never saw your friend...where was he?" Duplica asked. Jeanette just shrugged.

"Here and there, he likes to move around instead of being cooped up." she replied vaguely, "he did meet up with the Queen and Hiroshi-kun a few times when we came back."

"**What!?" **Duplica nearly shouted, "you mean you got to go with the Queen, and his highness when they disappeared on his birthday!?"

Jeanette tilted her head a bit to the side and replied, "Well of course, my father is the head of the guards and I was following my instructions when I came back to visit Cameran."

"That's not fair! Why did you get to go when I'm his highness's bodyguard!?" Duplica growled, while Jeanette shrugged as she hugged the yellow and orange honeycomb pokemon closer to her.

"I don't really know." Jeanette replied.

"Liar, you probably got to because you're daddy's little girl." Duplica sneered and a frown marred Jeanette's face.

"Your jealously isn't really becoming of a bodyguard assigned to Hiroshi-kun. If you keep that attitude up you may get replaced." Jeanette replied tartly.

"Okay enough!! Duplica stand down and Jeanette don't egg her on already." Hiroshi said stepping between the two girls. The two glared at each other before turning away. The blonde prince gave a nervous laugh. "Never a dull moment between you two..." he added before turning to Jeanette. "Jeanette why don't you introduce yourself to my friends here."

"Alright Hiroshi-kun," she replied.

"Its 'His highness or Prince!!" Duplica stated growling.

"Duplica...." Hiroshi said giving the teal colored hair girl a warning look, but Jeanette went on with her introduction as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"My name is Kaoruko Jeanette Ayaka Marduk, but please address me as Jeanette. I am the eldest daughter of Rath Marduk, Captain of the Royal Guards of Cameran and Lady Momoko Ayaka. " Jeanette said introducing herself, "I specialize mainly in bug and grass type pokemon and have just recently returned home from a ten year trip with Sir Aaron."

"Wow that's a mothful." Gary whistled at the long introduction. "are you sure you didn't forget to mention anything?"

"Hmm well Little Imite is my adopted younger sister." Jeantte added after a moment's thought.

"It's **Duplica!!** stop calling me Imite!" the said girl argued.

"Eh!? Duplica you never told us you had an older sister!" May said turning to the grumbling girl.

"I didn't want you to know...urgh she's so infuriating!!" the girl replied glaring at the kimono clad girl.

"Hey Jeanette, why were you on a ten-year trip with the King anyway?" Misty asked.

"That...is none of your business." Jeantte replied smiling daintily, making the older red haired girl growl.

"Okay...what about showing us your pokemon?" Zoey added.

"I guess it couldn't hurt. Combee dear, could you fly out of my arms for a minute?" Jeantte said sweetly. The pokemon she had been carrying agreed happily as it floated up and buzzed around Jeantte's head. She reached down and pulled off five of the six pokeballs around her waist and tossed them up.

"Scyther, Bellsprout, Mothim, Trophius, Frosslass time for your own introduction!"

In a flash of red light five pokemon were standing in front of the group, proudly in front of their trainer.

"Wow what a pretty pokemon!" May exclaimed looking at the Frosslass. "you rarely see any of these pokemon around even in the snowy mountain tops."

"Yes, it took a while but it was all worth it." Jeantte said smiling at her pokemon.

"Hey Misty why aren't you getting all freaked out when you see bug pokemon?" Snap asked looking at the water trainer. "usually you back ten feet away at the mere mention of bug types."

"Well yeah...but Combee and Scyther aren't that scary...although that Mothim is questionable..." the red replied shuddering.

Atfer a few minutes Jeantte returned her pokemon but Combee as it flew back into her arms. "Any other questions?" she asked.

"Just one more," Dawn said, "if you're here then where's Kazuki?"

Just as Jeantte was about to answer a loud **'Pikachuuu!!'** caught everyone's attention and they turned back to the tree where they saw the same yellow mouse pokemon's tail glow and give the tree a good hit. As thick as the trunk was, the whole tree shook. They were wondering what was suppose to happen, and they got their answer a few seconds later when a body fell out of the tree.

"Owwww...couldn't ya done something albeit easier like get Sceptile to get me?" the figure asked the mouse pokemon. It replied in its own language but surprisingly the figure seemed to understand him!

"Crap...I missed his match didn't I? That's why you're mad huh? Alright I'll give you two extra bottles of ketchup but that's it!" the figure stated brushing the dirt off of his clothes. "better return the others..." he added muttering to himself as he grabbed four pokeballs and returned Sceptile, Lapras, Charizard and Buizel. Once that was done he let out a yawn as he walked to where Jeantte was standing blinked at all the group in front of them.

The group got a good look at the figure that had fallen gracefully from the tree. He was almost the same height as Hiroshi, wearing a short sleeved black shirt over a red and white vest and black fingerless gloves. His dark spiky ebony locks went in every direction as his eyes glowed a light amber in the sunlight as the childish yet charming grin adorned his face as he greeted the group in front of him

"Made new friends while I was asleep?" he asked jokingly.

"No more like your other '_friend'_ did and brought them over." Jeanette replied smiling at the boy that had just woken up. He looked confused for a moment before Hiroshi was waving at him.

"Hiroshi! How are you?" the figure said greeted the prince warmly, as if they've known each other for a very long time, which made the others wonder if there was something else going on between the two.

"Hiroshi you know him too?" Gary asked., "how come you never talked about him before?"

"Oh well, I kinda wasn't allowed to, Mom's orders." Hiroshi replied shrugging. " anyway guys, and girls that already know, this is my good...friend Kazuki Tajiri." Hiroshi introduced. Kazuki grinned.

"Nice to meetcha, along with some old faces." he said turning towards Misty, Dawn, and Zoey and walked towards them to catch up on what they've been doing. The three girls couldn't help but feel their faces heat up as Kazuki got closer much to the interest of the others around them. Misty was the first to get her blushing down and started a conversation with Kazuki. As this was going on, Hiroshi glanced over at Jeanette. Even though it looked like everything was fine, he noticed that she was gripping her Combee rather tightly as the girls were getting closer to Kazuki.

"_Things are going to get interesting with him back..." _Hiroshi thought grinning.

* * *

**AN: Well thats it for this chapter just a few extra notes here. I don't like writing pokemon speech...seriously. I find it a bit annoying so that's why I actually having the pokemon talking in words, but only they can really understand each other. For Ash's new name "Kazuki" I thought it was a nice name for him to use since this is the meaning: **From Japanese _一 (kazu)_"one" or _和 (kazu)_ "harmony" combined with _輝 (ki)_ "radiance, shine" or _希 (ki)_ "hope". **XD;;**

**On Jeanette's name...I KNOW her offical dub last name is Fisher but...having the Captain of the Royal guard's last name be 'Fisher' just doesn't work for me XD;; so that's why I opted to change the name. As for 'Kaoruko' its her Japanese name in the series but I wanted to use it just for formality purposes. Pokemon wise, I know characters like Snap have no pokemon as Duplica only has two dittos, but I wanted to make it where they had pokemon so I gave them pokemon that seemed best suited for them. The pokemon for each character is as follows:**

**Satoshi:** Pikachu, Charizard, Lapras, Sceptile, Buizel, Lucario, Snorlax, , Squirtle, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Phanpy/Donphan, Noctowl, Heracross, Corpfish, Kingler, Glaie, Torkoal, Grotle, Gligar, Staraptor, Gallade, Muk, Kingler, Pigeot  
***I know Ash doesn't have a Gallade but its MY favorite pokemon and he doesn't have any psychic pokemon anyway!**

**Jeanette: **Scyther, Bellsprout, Frosslass, Snover, Mothim, Trophius, Combee, Beedrill, Frosslass  
*I tried keeping her with Grass/bug type pokemon and threw in the Frosslass just because of the kimono look it has  
**  
Duplica: **Ditto, lil Dit, Mimi Jr, Chatot, Smoochum  
***Basically tried to give Duplica pokemon that could use mimi or has a sort of copy move (Mirror Move, mimic, etc...etc...)**  
**  
Richie: **Sparky, Zippo (Charmelon), Happy (Butterfree), Cruise (Pupitar), Rose (Tailow), Gastly, Miltank, Primeape, Numel, Spearow, Tentacool  
***Since Richie is almost a clone of Ash, I tried to give them somewhat similar pokemon, or pokemon that Ash had but released (Haunter, Primeape for example)**

**Snap:** Kecleon, Hoothoot, Smeragle  
***Basically pokemon that could help him in his photos**

**May:** Blaziken, Eevee, Beautifly, Munchlax, Squitle, Bulbasaur, Skitty**  
**

**Drew: **Roselia, Absol, Masqurain, Flygon, Butterfree

**Misty: **Psyduck, Azurill, Gyarados, Corsola, Horsea, Politoad, Staryu

**Gary:** Blastoise, Umbreon, Eletivire, Arcanine, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Alakazam, Golem,

**Zoey:** Glameow, Finneon, Misdriveous, Shellos

**I think that's pretty much it for this chapter so if you have any questions, suggestions PM me please and thank you for reading my fic.**

Return


	4. The Guardian's Ball

***groans* okay if anything blame my school among other things that happened....anyway I'm slowly updating my stories and I put back up the poll for who should be paired with Ash. Here are the results so far:**

**Dawn- 16  
Jeanette - 12  
Misty -11**

I'll keep the poll up a bit longer and see how it goes from there. So sorry for the long wait and enjoy the new chapter!  


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* * *

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**The group had stayed in the park for several more hours until the sun started to set and when Drew had pulled away from his conversation/argument with May and pointed out the time.**

"Hey, if you guys want to get ready for the Aura Guardian's ball don't you think we should leave already to prepare?" he asked. The girls quickly looked at their watches and nearly screamed.

"Ahhhhh!!! I can't believe we talked for so long!! I have to get ready but I still need to pick up several things!!!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Come on if we hurry we can get the stuff and get ready at my place since its closer and you guys have your dresses there as well." May said.

"Alright we'll meet at May's house then after we run our errands then!" Misty said before turning to Kazuki and surprising him by hugging him. "it was really nice to see you again Kazuki, I hope to see you at the ball!" she added before grabbing May and Duplica as she ran off.

"Misty!! I have to be with Hiroshi-sama!!" Duplica cried out, feeling awkward not being by the Prince's side when her 'sister' and the new guy was around Hiroshi.

"He's a big boy and can take care of himself besides, " May replied leaning close to Duplica and whispering in her ear, "don't you want to IMPRESS him with how you look?"

Duplica blushed furiously which made May grin back at the aqua-colored hair girl.

Meanwhile the two remaining girls could only stare at what Misty had done before she was running off with May and Duplica in her grasps. Zoey was the first to recover.

"H-hey!! Mi-Misty!!!" Zoey and Dawn shouted shocked at the girl. The older red head turned around and grinned back at the two coordinators.

"Come on girls we need to get ready!! We got a lot of work to do!!" Misty replied back laughing.

"Misty get back here!!!" Zoey fumed as she shouted, chasing after the older red head.

Dawn laughed nervously as she looked at her retreating friends before glancing shyly at Kazuki. Making sure the girls were out of sight she quickly moved over and kissed his cheek before giggling.

"I hope you save me a dance Kazuki, " she laughed before going after her friends and leaving five amused boys, a fuming Jeanette and a blushing Kazuki.

"Looks like we got another casanova here, " Tracy laughed nudging Drew, " you got competition for the ladies Drew."

"Yeah right he's only focused on one lady and that's May." Gary snickered.

"Shut it Oak!!!" Drew scowled.

Hiroshi walked over to Kazuki reaching out to grasp the other boy's shoulder and shook him out of his stupor.

"I take it you've met a lot of girls but none of them kissed you have they?" the blonde prince asked.

"Uh...was it really that obvious?" Kazuki asked blushing as he scratched his head nervously.

"Big time." Snap replied.

Jeanette caught the others attention as she coughed rather loudly and moved to Kazuki's side, gripping his sleeve tightly.

"Kazuki we have an appointment with Lady Rin. We're suppose to meet her after the competition remember?" Jeanette said as there were still hints of anger laced in her voice.

"O-oh, right. We better get moving then." Kazuki replied but before they could leave, a large screech from above made the teens look up and saw a Pigeot circling above their head before landing in front of Jeanette and Kazuki.

"Looks like our ride is already here." Kazuki said laughing as he petted the bird on its head. The large bird pokemon cooed before lowering its head to allow Jeanette and Kazuki to climb onto their back. Once they were on, the two looked confused on why the bird hadn't left yet.

"Pigeot? Why aren't we leaving yet?" Kazuki asked. The bird replied with a few sounds and Kazuki nodded as he listened.

"Hey can he really understand what the pokemon is saying?" Tracy asked looking at Hiroshi. The blonde prince just shrugged.

"I guess so? He's had that ability for a while. I honestly don't know if he can actually understand them or just interpret what they're trying to say." he stated. The rest turned to the two on the back of the bird as they saw Kazuki suddenly grin before he nodded in affirmation.

"Hey Hiroshi, apparently Sir Aaron's pigeot was given instructions to take you and Duplica back to the castle as well!!" the dark haired trainer said.

"Really? That's cool I've never ridden on the back of a pokemon before!" Hiroshi said laughing as he walked up and climbed up sitting behind Jeantte. "too bad Duplica left with the other girls."

"Yeah that would've given her an excuse to hug you." Gary laughed getting the attention of the three on the bird's back.

"What do you mean by that?" Kazuki asked curiously while Hiroshi waved his hands around in front of him trying to silently signal Gary to shut up. The guy pretended he didn't see the blonde prince's movements.

"Weeeelll Hiroshi and the others know that Duplica is TERRIFIED of heights, so if she were to ride with you three on the back of that Pigeot, " Gary started as a knowing smirk made its way onto his face.

"Then his bodyguard would get the excuse to hold onto his highness while he held her protectively!" Snap finished for Gary laughing at Hiroshi's tomato red face.

Jeanette looked amused by this information. "Is that true Hiroshi? My my I wonder if I should start looking out for my little sister now." she said making the boys including Kazuki erupt in laughter.

Hiroshi just muttered something under his breath before Kazuki patted the Pigeot on the head, giving it the signal to take off already. It was a short, but enjoyable flight. Kazuki and Jeanette were enjoying the sights of the town from the sky as they saw the street lights coming on as people were preparing for the big ball at the castle. They could see people enjoying shopping for outfits, getting last minute things they needed before walking to the castle. It wasn't long before Pigeot let out a coo as it spotted its master apparently waiting for them in the back entrance of the castle. Once the bird had landed the three slid off and the pokemon was returned to its ball.

"I take it you three had a pleasant trip?" Aaron asked grinning at the three. "but where is Duplica?"

"She got dragged away from the other girls to get ready for the ball." Hiroshi replied.

"I see, anyway are you ready to see the Queen Kazuki?" Aaron asked smiling. Kazuki couldn't hide the excited look on his face as he grinned broadly back at the adult.

"Then I will take my leave for now Sir Aaron." Jeanette said bowing.

"But Jeanette don't you want to see Queen Rin?" Kazuki asked, but Jeanette graced the young aura user in training with a mysterious smile as she moved closer to the confused boy.

"I believe in this situation is more of family affair of which I have no partake in it." she replied. "besides I rather missed my parents dearly and wish to see them before the hour of the ball arrives. I shall see you later Kazuki-kun." she finished before she leaned over and kissed Kazuki's cheek before she moved away and walked gracefully back into the castle.

Kazuki just stared slacked jawed as Jeanette sashayed away from the three men. Hiroshi was gawking with his mouth dropped as Aaron stared for bit at the retreating girl before he started laughing at the younger boys expression.

"Well wasn't that sweet of Jeanette eh Kazuki?" Aaron said as he continued laughing, breaking Kazuki out of his state.

"O-oh just be quiet!!!" Kazuki managed to hiss out, his face ablaze before turning towards Hiroshi. "mind picking up your jaw? You're going to catch flies like that..."

"Guess Jeanette really was jealous when you got that kiss from Dawn earlier." Hiroshi said before Kazuki tried covering his mouth but failed in doing so. Aaron had stopped his laughing and looked rather slyly at Kazuki.

"Oho...you got a kiss from another girl in front of Jeanette huh Kazuki?" Aaron said smirking knowingly.

Whatever Kazuki was going to say died when he opened his mouth and just grumbled under his breath as he headed to the throne room with the two following behind him. Soon he stopped in front of two large doors that loomed over him and gazed at the door, biting his lips nervously as he hesitated. Aaron and Hiroshi soon came up behind him, and saw that Kazuki stood frozen in front of the queen's throne room. Smiling gently Aaron moved next to the frozen form and patted his shoulder making him gaze up at him.

"Don't be nervous Kazuki, theres nothing to be afraid of, you know that. She'll be happy to see you again." he said.

Swallowing the lump in his throat he mutely nodded and grasped the handles of the throne room and pushed them open, the creak in the doors echoing throughout the large room. Kazuki made his way to the throne, his eyes never leaving the figure seated in front of him. His legs felt like they were tied down by weights as he stopped a few feet from the throne where he stood in front of the imposing figure of Queen Rin smiling down at him.

"Hello son, my sweet Aaron..." Queen Rin said standing up and walking down the stairs, her gaze never leaving Kazuki.

"Hello mother, dad made quite an entrance didn't he?" Hiroshi replied smiling as he saw Kazuki fidgeting nervously as his mother stood in front of the dark haired youth.

"Yes it was quite some entrance...did you happen to see it Kazuki-kun?" Rin asked gently, "you've been rather quiet since you came here..."

"He's just nervously Rin dear..." Aaron said smiling, "I mean it has been a while since you two have seen each other right?"

Rin nodded. "It has been...how are you Kazuki-kun?"

"I...I'm fine...La-Lady R-Rin...." Kazuki stuttered out before shaking his head furiously, as he was trying to get rid of his nervousness. Before he could say anything, he was taken by surprise when the queen wrapped her arms around him and pulled Kazuki into a hug.

"I missed you so very much...you've grown so well...." she whispered as she held him tightly.

Kazuki stiffened a bit but soon relaxed in the embrace smiling happily, before wrapping his own arms around her.

"I'm back....mama...."

* * *

It was several hours later when the whole town was illuminated by strings of lights, making a pathway to the palace where the traditional ball was going to be held after the tournament for the aura guardian this year. It was especially exciting since it was their king's return to Cameron, and everyone was eager to see him once again. Many excitable chattering was going on as people walked the bridge connecting to the castle, not only was the outside of the castle brightly decorated but inside the grand ballroom was just as amazing with the decorations, the food, music and everything!

"Woooooww Queen Rin really wen all out this year for the ball!" May said amazed looking around the place. She was wearing a pink dress with a white short-sleeved top a dark red top on the bottom part of the dress with a beautifly bow in the back and her hair in two braids with pink pompoms in them as she had two small braids out front.

"Well with the King back I think its only naturally that they'd go all out." Misty replied looking around at the crowds of people dancing. "has anyone seen the guys? I didn't think it takes them this long to meet us here." The older red head was wearing a gown with patterns similar to that of a goldeen, with a white bottom, her hair down and pearl clips in her hair along with white elbow length gloves.

"Well they probably got lost in the crowd, I mean there are a lot of people coming and the Queen hasn't even shown up!" Dawn stated folding her arms as she looked around for anyone she recognized. The blunette had on a light teal colored dress with a v-neck and round sleeve puffs with white trims on the edge and on the bottom of the dress. A white sash was wrapped around the mid-section of the dress with a white bow on the back. Her hair was down with a ribbon in her hair the same colored of the dress.

"Did you see them coming on the bridge Zoey? Or even Duplica? I think we lost her in the crowd..." Dawn asked, turning towards her friend next to her after a few minutes of trying to look over the mass of heads in the grand ballroom. Zoey next to her wore a purple tuxedo top with tails in the back with grey pants and a white top.

"I thought I might've seen Drew but I don't know when they're going..." Zoey replied. "as for Duplica I think she went to meet with her parents. Something about having to be with her sister."

"Man where are they? The King and Queen are suppose to coming out soon..." Misty muttered looking around. She didn't have to wait any longer when she spotted the boys getting through the crowd and finally getting to them. "its about time you guys! What in the name of mew took so long?"

"Rose boy here lost his corsage in his house and wouldn't leave without it." Gary grumbled throwing the green haired coordinator a dark look, which he obviously ignored as he turned towards May who was looking at him curiously.

"Here May I er...here got this for the ball..." Drew said holding out the corsage of red roses as his face flushed a bit embarrassed. "didn't mean to make you wait so long..."

"Yeah, and yelling his head off at us to help him look for it really helped as well...." Snap muttered crossly as he folded his arms.

"Well at least you guys actually showed up!" Zoey said as she looked at them. "didn't Paul come?"

"You really think he'd be here doing something like this? That guy?" Gary asked raising an eyebrow.

"....right you made a good point..." Zoey replied as she watched May give Drew a small smile and let him put the corsage on her wrist. "soooo besides the two lovebirds over there you guys didn't miss much really. I think the Queen should be coming out soon to make her introduction and start the ball."

Suddenly everyone got quiet when they heard the doors open and they saw Queen Rin make her way up the steps and stand in front of her throne followed by Hiroshi in his own set of royal robes. He looked rather uncomfortable in them but dealt with it. He smiled towards his mother as she gave the crowd a smile before she started speaking.

"I would like to thank everyone who came to our wonderful home of Cameron for our Guardian of the Aura tournament and celebration of what my husband's ancestor has done! It is my pleasure to once again to announce our Guardian of the Aura, Sir Aaron!" Rin exclaimed.

Soon clapping erupted as the King made his way out of the same doorway, in the clothing of his ancestor and carrying the staff as his partner Lucario followed him to stand next to the queen. He raised his free hand and once again the grand ballroom went silent once more.

"I am happy to announce that I have finished my traveling and have come back to stay permanently by my Queen's side here," Aaron announced. The ball room erupted into loud cheers and was quickly silenced when the king asked for silence once more. "I would like to introduce you all to my traveling companions that accompanied me. First is captain of the guard's eldest daughter Kaoruko Marduk!"

There was clapping as Jeanette stepped out in a strapless green dress that was dark green on the top while the bottom part was a light green as it flowed outwards with trims of pale green. She also wore a dark green choker around her neck as her purple hair framed her face as she smiled gently to the crowd. She gave a small bow before she moved over to stand next to Aaron.

"My second companion is my new apprentice who shows much promise in my training. I'm pleased to introduce Kazuki Taijiri!" Aaron stated as Kazuki made his way where Jeanette stood and smiled albeit nervously at the crowd.

When Kazuki had come out there was some brief murmuring in the crowd, and glances at the dark haired boy. The murmurs were only broken with Gary, Dawn, Misty, Drew, Snap, May started clapping for him which was quickly followed by Duplica and the guards. Queen Rin smiled and nodded her head towards the gang of kids, silently thanking them to help break the ice when introducing Kazuki.

"Now I will let my son finish up. Hiroshi if you please?" she asked as she stepped away and allowed Hiroshi to come forward.

He grinned as he raised his arms to the crowd and stated, "Let the festivities begin in honor of our Guardian of Aura celebration!" There was a loud cheer as the music soon started and soon everyone was partnering up and enjoying themselves on the dance floor.

"Mother would it be alright if Kazuki, Jeanette, Duplica and I go join my friends?" the young blonde prince asked Rin.

"It would be wrong for me to keep you here. Besides there is plenty more I'd like to talk about with your father." Rin replied.

Hiroshi grinned brightly and quickly gave his parents a quick bow and practically leapt off the stage. Kazuki laughed and bowed to the King and Queen as Jeanette gave them a curtsy before following the happy prince as he ran over to where Duplica was waiting for him near the guards on the side of the stage.

"Sorry it took a while Duplica. You ready to join the others?" Hiroshi asked.

"Of course your highness!" the aqua haired girl replied. She had was wearing a dark turquoise dress with straps that went around her neck a slit on the side of the dress that went up to below her knee with long white gloves that went up to her upper arms. Her hair instead of the usual pig tails was slightly wavy as some of her hair was pulled back by a dark blue clip.

"Great shall we?" he said grinning holding out his arm, Duplica stared surprised at the prince before she started blushing as she took a hold of the offered arm and followed Hiroshi to his group of friends.

"Hmm it seems I was correct in my assumptions to watch my dear little Imite of Hiro-chan's advances." Jeantte said making Kazuki laugh.

"Aw come on you know Hiroshi wouldn't do anything he'd regret to your sister when you're around." he replied as he and Jeantte trailed after the prince.

"That only makes me much more concerned on what has been going on when we were not here." Jeanette replied frowning a bit. Kauzki pattered lightly on the shoulder.

"Come on its a dance you should really just enjoy yourself. Hiroshi will treat your sister like a perfect gentleman!" he said. He blinked when Jeanette smiled slyly at him.

"Hmmm good point so I might take the first dance with you!" she said giggling as she swerved around and pulled a surprised Kazuki towards the ballroom floor where they were quickly swept up by the music.

"Hey Hiroshi, glad to see you could make it with your date." Gary said waving as he was snickering at the two. Hiroshi coughed before leveling other with a glare.

"At least I HAVE a date Gary...." Hiroshi retorted smirking. Gary and Snap coughed and muttered something incoherently under their breath making the blonde prince's smirk go even wider.

"Hiroshi, where's Kazuki?" Misty asked approaching the prince with his guard attached to his elbow. "I saw you two leave the stage together."

"Eh? Wasn't he just..." Hiroshi wondered turning around and looking behind him. "I could've swore he was walking just behind me with Jeanette."

Duplica looked around as well before she spotted them and then sighed. "I found them your highness, apparently my sister dragged Kazuki onto the dance floor before the others could get to him." she said pointing with her free arm onto the dance floor where Jeanette was smiling happily as she and Kazuki danced.

The group turned to where Duplica was pointing and they saw indeed that the two were dancing on the floor. Misty and Dawn stared where the two dancing and couldn't help but grow a bit jealous that the purple haired girl had gotten to him first. Zoey, Gary, Snap, Hiroshi and Duplica could feel a bead of sweat coming down the side of their face as they all could've swore they saw fire in their eyes.

"W-well I'm sure they'll get their turn eventually..." Hiroshi said laughing nervously. "c-come on Duplica lets have some fun dancing okay?" the prince added pulling the guard towards the dance floor.

"Well let's just enjoy ourselves then." Zoey said grabbing Snap's hand and pulling him towards the dance floor. "I hope you don't have two left feet Snap." she added laughing at the poor boy's flustered face. Gary grinned at Misty and bowed to her as he held out a hand.

"Since Kazuki seems to be dancing already mind for the next best thing?" he asked. Misty rolled her eyes and huffed as she placed her hand in boy's outstretched one.

"Step on my feet even once Oak and I'll hurt you worse..." Misty replied sarcastically sweet. The spiky haired auburn boy laughed nervously but nodded as he lead her to the floor.

Dawn sighed as she leaned against the table with the food behind her as she watched her friends dance enviously. She really had hoped to catch Kazuki with a dance before the other girls, but with Jeanette seemingly always by his side she should've expected the other girl to get to him first.

_'Not to mention that with the other girls on the dance floor they're sure to get to him before I could even take a step in...' _she thought to herself, as she turned around and grabbed a snack to nibble on.

Kazuki twirled Jeanette outwards before catching her as she giggled happily.

"This is fun isn't it Kazuki?" she asked as they continued to dance around the floor.

"Mmm it is." he replied as he spun the girl again before catching her, but as he did so he noticed a familiar girl standing alone near the food quietly watching everyone. He frowned a bit looking at the lonely look at her face. He remembered from their earlier meeting that she had looked pretty cute when she was smiling, and that sad look on her face didn't suit her one bit. Jeanette saw the pensive look on Kazuki's face wondered what the boy was thinking about.

"Kazuki-kun?"

"Jeanette, would you mind if we took a break? We've been dancing since the ball started and I'm getting rather hungry."

"Oh, I understand Kazuki-kun. Go right ahead." Jeanette relented, trying hard not to argue with the other. Smiling at the other girl he thanked her before walking off the dance floor.

"Care to dance with an old man dear?" a deep familiar voice behind her asked. Turning around Jeanette blinked before bowing to the person behind her.

"I wouldn't dream of it father." she replied gazing back at Kazuki, now noticing him heading towards a girl by the table.

"Hello Dawn, I'm surprised no one asked you to dance with a pretty girl like you." Kazuki said charmingly making the girl's head snap up and stare at him.

"Ka-Kazuki-kun! I uh...I thought you had a partner already to dance with?" she asked nervously. Kazuki lightly chuckled making the blunette look up at him once again.

"I did, but I'm taking a break right now. Would you mind if we just talked a bit?" he replied gently, "I'm rather famished as well."

"O-okay! Y-yeah I kinda skipped dinner since I was with the others to get ready for the dance." Dawn said.

"I think you look very cute. The dress brings out your eyes rather nicely." the dark haired boy added, making Dawn blush furiously as she grabbed a plate and walked down the buffet table. Once their plates were full, they settled down in a seat near the window. It was a bit of an awkward silence for Dawn as she was nibbling on her food while glancing up at Kazuki who seemed content with just sitting with her.

"S...so uh Buizul looks happy since we traded..." Dawn finally said, mentally hitting herself for starting with such a lame topic.

"Yes, he really takes his training seriously and likes to go up against several of my other pokemon." Kazuki replied. "so how has Aipom been with you? He hasn't stolen anything from you and run off has he?"

"Eh?" Dawn replied a bit confused.

"Hahaha see when I first ran into Aipom he would steal my favorite hat off my head and then run off." Kazuki explained. "I would chase him until I finally captured him."

Dawn giggled. "No he's been really good, he even evolved!" Kazuki looked interested at her.

"Really now? That's amazing. You must've trained him well."

"O-oh I think it was probably you I mean you must've had him a long time before I did..." Dawn said laughing a bit.

"Hahaha maybe, but he might've just evolved under your conditions like I believe Aipom like showing off more then he did battling." Kazuki said as he leaned against the windowsill. Dawn seemed more at ease around Kazuki instead of being all nervous like she had been earlier.

"So what was it like traveling with the King?" she asked curiously as she saw the other boy grinning back at her. After that the ice seemed to be broken indefinitely and soon the two were exchanging stores of what they had been up to since they had last seen each other. They didn't notice that their friends had spotted them and Dawn was the target of two girl's ire.

"Owowowowow Mi-Misty ya mind letting up on the grip? I think I'm losing circulation in my arm!!" Gary asked wincing as he could feel the red head's fingernails digging into his arm. He sweated when the girl didn't seem to hear him as her grip just got tighter. "Misty!!" he hissed loudly finally breaking her from glaring daggers at Dawn and turning her attention back to her dance partner. "mind letting up on the grip please?"

"Er...right sorry Gary...I got a little distracted..." She said as she finally loosened her grip on the boy's arm. Gary let out a relieved sigh as he was getting feeling back in his arm.

"Thank you, geez you're really jealous of Dawn aren't you?" he added, but he suddenly wish he hadn't said that as Misty glowered at him and stomped on his poor foot.

"WHAT WAS THAT OAK?" Misty hissed out rather aggravated as her grip on the boy's nice top tighten.

"N-Nothing!!" he choked out, "ehehehe I said absolutely nothing Misty!!"

The red head huffed as she let go of the top. "Good, because if you had I'd do more then give you a nice foot stomp..." she retorted giving Gary and evil look making the poor boy pale.

"Uh Jeanette...sweetie you're giving off a rather dark atmosphere around you..." Rath said as he could feel a bead of sweat trailing down his face as he looked at his daughter who was glaring practically murderously at the blue haired girl that was talking to the King's apprentice. _'She's so much like her mother its uncanny...and very very frightening...'_ the captain thought to himself recalling times when his wife would be mad, making him shudder.

Jeanette continued to glower at the girl before she composed herself and looked back at her father.

"I...apologize father I just saw something a bit unpleasant..." she said, muttering the last part mostly to herself.

"I'm sure Taijiri-kun is just getting to make some new friends, there's nothing for you to be worried about." Rath said trying to comfort his daughter. He just continued to hear her mutter darkly making him laugh nervously. He turned his daughter away from the two hoping to block her view of her friend talking to the other girl and continued dancing.

"Y-you know what I-I think I'm going to get some food n-now...owowowowowow...." Gary groaned massaging his poor hand as he practically limped off the floor as his foot was still in tremendous pain from Misty's earlier attack. "wh-why don't you see if Tajiri-kun would dance with you, since that's what you seem focused on..." he added muttering the last part to himself not wanting the furious redhead to impale his poor foot with her heel.

"Maybe I'll just go and do that..." Misty muttered as she headed towards him.

"Oooo my poor aching hand...." Gary groaned as he deposited himself in a chair, waiting for the pain to go away. "geez that girl has a strong grip..."

"Ahaha and he really bites your head? BOTH of them?" Dawn asked laughing.

"Well he's evolved now, but the other one yeah he just does that as a sign of affection I believe." Kazuki replied. "he's surprisingly rather attached to Charizard though."

"Why is that?" Dawn asked, " does he admire him I guess? Or maybe see him as a daddy since he's younger?" Kazuki stared at her for a moment before clutching his stomach laughing.

"ahahahaha!! o-oh man if Charizard heard you say that ahahahaha!!" Kazuki chortled, " I mean right now he finds him rather annoying, with him biting his tail nearly all the time. but can't do anything since Lapras would be upset at him."

"He really holds Lapras's opinion important to him?" Dawn replied.

"Uh huh. Lapras and Charizard are actually really close that he's extremely protective of her." Kazuki stated. "when I first got Lapras let's just say she wasn't exactly found under ideal conditions...see she was beached and some trainers were picking on her with their pokemon."

"let me guess, Charizard was out during that time when you spotted her and came in and saved her?" Dawn finished.

"Pretty much, bottom line was Charizard is a bit familiar with not so good trainers..." Kazuki explained, "so when he saw Lapras in distress well let's just say you never want to mess with Lapras when Charizard is around."

Dawn sighed happily. "that's so romantic though, caring so much for Lapras and being so protective of her..."

"I guess so, my other pokemon find it rather amusing though." Kazuki said tapping his chin. "I mean a few of them manage to tease Charizard and get under his skin a few times..." the boy suddenly realized what he said and covered his mouth, making Dawn stare at him.

"Uh Kazuki-kun, do you understand what your pokemon actually SAY?" she asked, making the boy laugh nervously.

"Eh? Of course not Dawn that's silly! I just figured that out because Charizard ended up chasing after them as they ran away from him." Kazuki replied waving his hands in front of him.

"Oh...I guess that makes sense..." she said after a while. "uh Kazuki would uhm...would you care to dance with me? I mean I did ask you to save me one...and I do like talking to you but we have been sitting here a while and-" she continued babbling.

"Sure I think that would be about time to make good on that promise. " Kazuki said interrupting her as he stood up and held out his hand towards her.

She took it smiling as he pulled her up off of the cushion seat she had been sitting on. They walked towards the dance floor and Dawn nervously put her hand on Kazuki's shoulder as the boy grasped his hand.

"I'm sorry Kazuki but I kinda forgot to mention I'm not that great a dancer..." Dawn mumbled looking down.

"Oh don't worry about it, being the King's apprentice not to mention having Jeanette around as well you tend to pick up a few things." he replied easily.

"If you say so Kazuki-kun..." Dawn sighed as she let the other boy lead her in the dance.

It wasn't long before she stopped looking down at her feet and looking back up and staring into those amber eyes of the boy she was dancing with. The two were throughly enjoying dancing with each other that they almost missed them being surrounded by the others until Zoey had walked up behind Dawn and tapped her shoulder.

"You know, if you two are done staring at the stars in each other's eyes then you're going to miss the fireworks." she said trying not to laugh at their reddening faces.

"Zo-Zoey!!!" Dawn exclaimed staring horrified at the red haired coordinator.

"I have to admit you two were dancing for a while," May added grinning, "it was like you two were in your own little worlds."

"Come on guys!! not helping!!" Dawn moaned out embarrassed at being teased so much by her friends.

Kazuki coughed as he disengaged from Dawn, as he looked at the guys smirking at him. "Whatever you're thinking forget it and I'm not saying a WORD."

"Piffft you're no fun." Gary said rolling his eyes while Hiroshi and Snap just chuckled.

"How's your hand? It was hard to miss you groaning in pain from Misty's rather brutal attack on you." Kazuki shot back at him, making Gary go quiet.

"Ouch what'd you say this time Oak?" Snap asked.

"Shut up..."

"If you guys are done, dad's about to signal the fireworks, ending the ball." Hiroshi said pointing to the stage where Aaron stood up from his seat. With a smile on her face, Queen Rin turned towards the crowd as she stood up as well.

"And now our Aura Guardian will signal the end of the tournament and the ceremonial ball with the start of the fireworks!" Queen Rin announced. Aaron took the position holding the staff just as the giant portrait of his ancestor and soon whistling outside was heard as the fireworks exploded into the pitch black sky.

"Woooow they really got creative this year didn't they?" May said as she watched several fireworks explode into pokemon shapes. She laughed happily when she saw one explode into a torchic's head.

"Yeah, they must've done some special details for Sir Aaron's return." Drew added as he stayed close to May as they enjoyed the fireworks.

"It kinda sucks we have school tomorrow, tonight was so much fun I don't know how much sleep I'll get..." Misty sighed. She was with the group as she had stopped when Kazuki had taken Dawn onto the dance floor.

"Well let's hope you're ready because isn't tomorrow the day the school does its semester aptitude testing?" Gary stated. The girls gasped horrified while Snap paled as well.

"What!? That's tomorrow I thought it was next week!!" May exclaimed.

"No actually he's right. Yesterday was the last day of the semester so the new semester we have the aptitude tests." Drew replied. The girls just groaned loudly, as Kazuki and Jeanette looked at each other confused.

"Uhm, exactly what are the aptitude tests exactly?" Kazuki asked. "I mean I have an idea but seeing as I've been on the road traveling with Jeanette here..."

"Well the aptitude test is basically an exam to test pokemon trainers, coordinators, breeders, basically all the different classes at the academy to check them for physical abilities, coordination with our pokemon, and battle strategy." Hiroshi explained. "there's a written test and then we have the physical aspect of it like I said earlier."

"But even though there's a written and physical exam for all students, depending on the class you're actually in he aptitude test varies from there." Gary added. "For trainers they usually have a three on three pokemon match with a teacher or double battle depending on who the teacher is."

"What about coordinators?" Jeanette asked.

"Well its pretty much like a pokemon contest. We have to show improvement in our appeals and our contest battles as well." Drew replied. "but instead of the teachers we contest battle against other coordinators. It doesn't really matter who wins but it does help."

"Its pretty much like a final exam..." Snap sighed as he let out a loud groan. "the scores we get on the aptitude exam affect our grade point average almost by half."

"I see, so if we wish to do well in the academy then it would be prudent to do well on this aptitude exam." Jeanette said.

"Pretty much...oh my god I'm going to have to go over EVERYTHING tonight!" Snap grumbled.

"Well thats what you get for procrastinating so much." Gary snickered.

"Man you two are luck you don't have to do the tests since you don't go to the academy..." Dawn said.

"Well actually..." Kazuki said sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "I was going wait to surprise you guys tomorrow but I guess since we're talking about the academy now...Jeannette and I are actually transferring into the academy tomorrow."

The fireworks in the background were loud enough that they managed to muffle the surprised, "WHAT" from the group except for Hiroshi who laughed at their expressions.

"You're serious!? Wouldn't you want to wait until the day after tomorrow so you wouldn't have to take the exams?" Snap asked.

"What's the point of that?" Jeanette said raising an eyebrow, "I mean eventually Kazuki and I will eventually have to take it so why not get it over with."

"But...but..." Snap stuttered before Hiroshi hit his back a few times.

"I'm sure they'll do fine. Its already late and the fireworks are almost over not to mention we all have a long day tomorrow." The prince stated making the whole group groan.

They said their goodbyes as soon the fireworks ended and the crowd started to disperse from the ballroom towards the exit. Once all the guests were gone the servants moved in and started cleaning up as Kazuki, Hiroshi, Duplica and Jeanette headed back to the adults.

"I take it you four had fun?" Queen Rin said smiling at the three.

"Yes ma'am it was a very enjoyable dance." Jeanette said politely.

"I'm sure Hiro-chan had fun as I didn't see him dance with anyone other then Duplica." the Queen added smiling at her blushing son and bodyguard.

"Mo-Mother!!" Hiroshi groaned out, his face an interesting hue of red as Duplica's own was mimicking the young prince's.

"I believe dear, as much fun as it is teasing our son and his date I have a feeling that the children have a long day at the academy tomorrow. They're going to need all the rest they can get." Aaron said grinning broadly.

"Sir Aaron, did you happen to know of the Aptitude exam that the academy is having tomorrow?" Jeanette asked but with a slight twitch in her eye.

The king just smiled serenely back at the girl making Duplica stare at the King with her mouth dropped as Kazuki and Hiroshi were sighing and the twitch in the bug/grass pokemon trainer's eye became more distinct as she looked at the young King.

* * *

"I cannot believe you made us run late Kazuki!" Jeanette sighed as she was running down the street with Hiroshi, Duplica and Kazuki beside her.

"I said I was sorry!! its been a while since I had been in the palace so of COURSE I'm going to get lost getting back to my room!!" Kazuki argued. His pikachu clinging to his shoulder seemed to have a different opinion.

"_You realize it was because you wanted to get some late night training in that Jeanette and Hiroshi had trouble finding you right?"_ the electric mouse replied.

"Not helping Pikachu!"

"Whatever he said I agree! Of all the things getting lost to your own room!" Hiroshi retorted rolling his eyes. "Gah! We're going to be late for the start of the exams anyone have any bright ideas?"

"Unless one of us has a flying pokemon to carry us all we're kinda stuck running..." Duplica stated grimacing.

"Oh! Of course! Trophius dear!" Jeanette called throwing the pokeball in the air releasing the large plant/flying pokemon. "we can use him to get to school!"

"_Yes master Jeanette?"_

"Trophius dear can you please get us to school in the next..." Jeanette asked looking at her watch, "ten minutes or sooner?"

"_It shall be done master."_ Trophius replied lowering it self as the four climbed onto its back before it took flight by flapping its leafy wings. The passengers had to hold on tightly as the flying pokemon was soon zooming through the air at a rather high speed.

"Wow Jeanette your Trophius is fast despite his size!!" Hiroshi yelled over the high winds.

Jeanette just smirked rather pleased at the statement. It wasn't long before they saw the academy coming up in the distance, and in a matter of minutes Trophius landed outside the wall of the school as Jeanette and the others slid off of the pokemon's back.

"Return Trophius! Come on we better get to our homerooms if we don't want to be late for our first exem!" Jeanette shouted as she quickly returned her pokemon back as they rushed through the front gates, ignoring the looks they were getting by some late comers like them.

"Do you two know what your classes are?" Hiroshi asked once they got through the front doors of the school and were in the hallways.

"Uh...ho-hold on..." Kazuki mumbled digging through his backpack trying to find the paper Sir Aaron had handed him and Jeanette with their classes on it.

"I have pokemon herbology with Professor Birch" Jeanette said pulling out her paper.

"and I have pokemon care with a Brock Slate." Kazuki stated finally pulling out his own list of classes.

"Oh good! I can show you where that is since that's my homeroom as well! Jeanette, your class is outside in the greenhouses, you can't miss them!" Hiroshi said grabbing Kazuki's arm and pulling him towards the stairs as the warning bell rang. "I'll see you two later!"

"See you later sis..." Duplica grumbled as she headed off to her own class, "I have battle strategies with Ms. Lucy..."

"Okay Little Imite I'll see you soo, good luck in your tests." Jeanette said brushing off some dust on her skirt and headed out towards the gardens.

Halting in her steps she turned around and glowered at the other girl's back.

"Stop calling me IMITE!!" she shouted in the near empty hallway, before she stormed off.

~*~*~*~*~

Just as the final bell rang, the door to the classroom slammed open as Hiroshi and Kazuki came through the front door.

"Hahaha...we...we...just made it Kazuki..." Hiroshi said grinning.

"So glad you could make it Hiroshi-sama and I believe our new student." a dark-skinned man said behind his desk.

"Ehehe sorry we were late Mr. Slate..." Hiroshi said laughing nervously, "we kinda woke up a bit late..."

"I can see that Hiroshi-sama, well might as well get the introductions done with. Care to tell the class about you?" Brock asked.

Pushing Kazuki to the front of the room grinning before heading over to his seat.

"Well, my name is Kazuki Taijiri, and I've been traveling with my friend Jeanette and Sir Aaron for the last ten years as the King's apprentice." he started, the last part getting the attention of the sleepy-eyed class. The dark haired boy could only blink at the sudden chattering of the class compared to how quiet it was when he and Hiroshi had first ran in.

"What!?"

"Did he say apprentice of the king?"

" He can't be serious..."

"Why would the king want to train someone like him?"

While all this was going around Kazuki just sighed slightly bothered by all the comments he was getting. He never noticed a pair of dark purple eyes observing him through narrowed slits.

_'Hm...apprentice of King Aaron huh...let's just see how tough he really is...'_

_

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**AN: Okay just a few extra stuff here, I recently watched some new DP episodes (unsubbed/dubbed) so Ash has a new pokemon that wasn't mentioned in the last chapter and I'm considering giving Dawn the pokemon she had gotten in the series. but other then that everyone pretty much still has their same pokemon. As for the classes, well besides battling there had to be some other subjects so I just went with what sounded good. Hahaha don't forget to review please!**


	5. Revisting The Past

**Azure: Hey guys sorry for the long wait a lot of things had come up (school), and I had to change some things like Jeanette's pokemon to work for this chapter. So please enjoy this chapter. Uhm about the question Badass Ichigo, usually I would love to make a yaoi story but for this story its going to be het. As for the voting here are the final results:**

**Dawn: 27**

**Misty: 18**

**Jeanette: 17**

**So the final pair is Kazuki/Dawn. I have an idea on who to pair Jeanette with as for misty don't really know...So I hope you all enjoy the new chapter and tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, only the copy of the games**

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* * *

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Brock cleared his throat at all the attention that his new student was receiving.

"Now that we have all the introductions done, why don't you go find your seats hm?" the dark skinned teacher said.

"Yes sir!" Hiroshi said quickly moving to his seat in the middle of the classroom.

"Where to put you...ah you can take a seat next to Paul. Paul please raise your hand so Kazuki can see you please." Brock instructed. Kazuki looked around and saw a purple haired teen about his age roll his eyes but raise his hand and he moved over to the spare seat next to him.

"Hi Paul I'm Kazuki and-"

"Hmph."

Kazuki just stared at Paul as that was the only other thing the teen said to him before he turned back to the front as Brock was explaining what was going to happen. Under his desk a certain yellow mouse pokemon poked his head out from the school bag.

"_Kazuki? What happened?"_ Pikachu asked quietly making the boy look down and shushed him.

"Shhh pikachu stay in the bag." He whispered, "pokemon aren't suppose to be out of their pokeballs during classes…" He saw the mouse pokemon pout but nodded and ducked back into the bag as Kazuki looked up just in time to hear Brock's explanation about the test.

"As you all know, today is the aptitude tests and I'm sure you all are excited." Brock said grinning at the moans and groans from the students. "as usual we have the paper tests in the morning and the afternoon consists of the obstacle course and then the battles. Now I hope you all brushed up on what we went over because this is all comprehension." the dark skinned teacher added making most of the class groan louder.

Brock just chuckled as he picked up the pile of papers from the desk in front of him and moved as he started to pass out the exam to each student. Once each student had a test he moved back to the front of the class.

"You have until the end of the period. I'll announce when you have five minutes left, now begin."

Later...

"Urgh did anyone get that question about the properties of gloom's drool?" Snap asked as he flopped onto the grass exhausted, "because I just wrote something down..."

"I think it had something to do with properties for perfume." Misty said tapping her chin.

"Of course you would remember that." Gary said rolling his eyes before he was hit in the head with several pieces of bread rolls from the surrounding girls. "Ow ow ow ow! Okay okay I get it!"

"Maybe you should use that big brain of yours and remember who exactly you're around Oak..." May muttered as she bit into her large sub sandwich making some of the girls around her sweat.

"I really wanna know how she eats all of that and she still looks the way she does..." Misty muttered.

"Maybe its all the chasing she does with us when we tease her about Drew." Zoey stated grinning as May nearly choked on a piece of her sub sandwich, before she grabbed her drink and chugged it down to help clear her throat before she glowers at the laughing coordinator.

"Shut…up…"

"By the way, has anyone seen Kazuki?" Misty asked looking around, "I mean I saw him leaving the classroom but he just disappeared."

"Yeah and Jeanette too. You think they're together?" Tracy asked, but suddenly wished he hadn't when he saw dark glares from several of the girls. "Uh….."

"Actually I saw Jeanette head to the gardens of the school…I guess since most of her pokemon are bug and plant type she'd be around there with her pokemon released." Hiroshi stated as he picked up a piece of fruit. "Kazuki is probably somewhere around here, but you'll see him during the obstacle course after lunch before we separate into the battle arena."

"That's true…we all have to pass that obstacle course…do you think they changed it this year?" May asked

"Probably and added some new rules into it. They don't want to make it easy which is probably why they adding or changing things." Drew stated. "It wasn't that bad last year."

"Yeah, says the person that didn't just barely pass…" Snap grumbled.

"Maybe if you worked out a bit more instead of just sitting around with your camera you could improve your times on the course." Gary snickered as he dodged a fruit being thrown at him. "hopefully this year you don't get second to last."

"Yeah yeah…" the photographer muttered biting harshly into his food and mumbling under his breath making Gary laugh.

"Oh come on, what could they POSSIBLY have planned this year that could be worse then last time?"

* * *

"What could they POSSIBLY have planned this year that could be worse then last time, those were your words weren't they okay?" Snap grumbled next to the spiky haired brown teen, looking at the sheepish professor's son with his arms folded and his smeragle doodling in the dirt.

"Well how was **I **suppose to know they would do!" Gary retorted as Umbreon sitting next to his master's legs snickered and ignoring the glare he was being given.

"Uh does the instructor always wear the camouflage?" Kazuki whispered to Hiroshi as the darker haired trainer patted his pikachu hanging on his shoulder. Gym was one of the few classes that allowed only one pokemon to be out of their pokeballs for the class.

"Yeah, he wears it because it makes him look even more tough then he is." The blonde prince replied back holding his own pikachu that was chatting with Kazuki's.

"And those bulging muscles on his arms don't intimidate enough!"

"**QUIET!" **

All the students flinched and turned towards the drill sergeant in a camouflage outfit. His blonde spiky hair sticking straight up as his fingerless gloves twitched eagerly while smirking at the students who couldn't help but gulp nervously as they looked at him and then at the new obstacle course. It didn't help that the teacher's raichi had the exact same expression on its own face that was on his master's.

"Now as you maggots know, the school board always tries to find new and inventive ways to challenge yourselves and push you to the limits." He said. "so you can obviously see the new additions to the old course but we came up with a new twist. We want you to have a pokemon with you during the course run."

"Huh? How is that suppose to be a challenge?"

"Wouldn't that just make it easier to get through faster?"

"Yeah! And to think I was worried about nothing!"

"I get a feeling there are going to be limitations to exactly…." Gary.

"BUT there are rules maggots that won't let you use the pokemon to get through this for a good time."

"See I knew it…"

"There are three distinct sections in the obstacle course. The first part has the wall which you MUST climb, no using pokemon that can FLY over!, also the rings both you and your pokemon must go through as well so no large pokemon, that goes the same for swinging over the mud pit, crawling under the net and over the hurdles!" the teacher stated already seeing several students grimace.

"Wow they really went all out this year…" May muttered wondering which pokemon she should use.

"Yeah and Lt. Surge is taking full advantage of it and scaring everyone out of their wits…" Misty added biting her lip since this would be a challenge for her since she specializes in water pokemon she raised her hand getting Lt. Surge's attention.

"Yeah Waterflower?"

"Does it count as flying if a pokemon is floating in mid-air?" she asked.

"Uh…let me check…Raichi go get the form we were given at the meeting…"

"_Yes sir!"_ Raichu saluted and quickly dashed off before reappearing with several papers in its mouth as Lt. Surge took the papers and flipped through them.

"Okay it says here as follows: no flying pokemon to go over obstacles, no pokemon is to destroy a target that is made to climb through, under, over…etc… or ghost pokemon to go through the obstacles either. It doesn't say anything about floating about psychic types but this is suppose to be a CHALLENGE so push yourselves maggots!" Lt. Surge stated getting nods from the others before he continued.

"Now! The second part is a bit more tricky!" Surge continued with his lecture as he gestured and the whole class saw a bunch of moving targets. "not only do your pokemon have to hit and break each and every single target but so must you. There are a variety of weapons to choose, all of them are dulled so you maggots can't hurt yourselves but they're enough to break the targets."

"Oh yeah he's DEFINITLY enjoying this too much…" Tracy grimaced clutching his marill, "I mean I know we've used weapons maybe once or twice but seriously!"

"Guess we just have to make the best decision when it comes to those weapons." Drew replied shrugging.

"Once you and your pokemon get through the second part the last part is this little beauty…" Surge smirks as he brings out a small device with a few buttons on it and presses the biggest one on the device.

The ground shook a bit before the students saw the ground open up and several structures appeared. Surge pressed another button and they started moving, there were 3 long cylinders over a pool that was rolling, large mushrooms and a checkerboard that had different parts moving up and down.

"Just what the heck is THAT suppose to test!" half the students cried out as Lt. Surge shrugged.

"The school board added that part for a twist, hehehehe. Now who's first maggots?" he replied gazing at the nervous faces of the group until his eyes landed on Kazuki who blinked along with pikachu who was broken out of his conversation with Hiroshi's when Lt. Surge pointed at them.

"Oi newbie with the pikachu, why don't you try your luck on the course."

"Uh…alright sir…." Kazuki said stepping up past the group an in front of the start of the course and looked at everything in front of him before he looked at his shoulder. "hey pikachu mind sitting this one out? I want to try a few things."

"_Okay Kazuki, I'll just hang with Sparky then!"_ the mouse pokemon replied back surprising Lt. Surge as he jumped from his master's shoulder into Hiroshi's arm.

"Chose your pokemon already and get started, there are others that need to go." Lt. Surge said sniggering at the pale looks on the kid's face. "and don't forget this whole thing is TIMED…"

"Alright then bulbasaur I choose you!" Kazuki shouted quickly and the small green pokemon appeared next to him.

"_What's going on?" _Bulbasaur asked looking around and stared at the obstacle course in front of him. "_and what in the name of Arceus is that!"_

Kazuki looked at his pokemon. "It's an obstacle course and I need your help you up for it."

"_Of course I am, let's do it." _Bulbasaur replied smirking.

Kazuki nodded and pointed to the wall. "Okay lets start up with Vine whip bulbasaur!"

"_Alright then!" _

Everyone watched as bulbasaur brought its vines and shot one straight up to the top of the climbing wall, gripping tightly on one of the grips on top before pulling itself up and throwing down the other vine so Kazuki can grab it and was lifted up.

"You never mentioned we could do something like this sir!" Kazuki laughed as he reached the top with bulbasaur.

"Cheeky maggot…" Lt. Surge grumbleed but couldn't help but grin, "let's just see how ya fair with the rest of the course newbie!"

Kazuki just laughed as Bulbsaur got on his back as he grabbed the rope and scaled down the rest of the wall. Once he reached the ground bulbsaur continued to use his vinewhip across the mud pool as Kazuki grabbed his own rope and flew over easily as well as crawling through the net. When it came to the hurdles a lot of the students were wondering how bulbasaur was going to get over the hurdles until they saw bulbasaur using his vine whips to get him off the ground and over the hurdles as the pokemon ran alongside Kazuki.

"That's one creative way to use that skill…" Gary couldn't help but admire, "he made a good choice choosing bulbasaur."

"Yeah….I would want to try that with my bulbasaur but she's a bit younger then Kazuki's…." May said looking at her pokeballs.

"I thought he was going to use pikachu since he had him out of its pokeball." Misty added watching Kazuki flow through the first part of the obstacle course with ease.

"He probably would've but he seemed to take Lt. Surge's words to heart and really challenge himself." Snap stated.

"Kazuki would've had to train that pokemon a lot to get it strong enough to support his weight easily." Gary added answering May's question as he watched Kazuki and bulbasaur get through the net and into the second area. "I wonder what weapon he'll choose."

Kazuki looked at the assortment of weapons before he grabbed a staff and grinned as the targets started to move around rapidly.

"Okay razor leaf on the targets on your side, just like we trained during our travels." Kazuki said gripping his staff tighter.

Soon the two sprinted off into the mass of moving targets and started getting through them with ease, as if they had done this a million times before. They moved swiftly and surely through the targets striking them down, making everyone, including Lt. Surge stare in shock at the teamwork.

"I didn't think the newbie would be that good! Has he had previous training like this before!" he exclaimed.

"Well he IS the apprentice under Sir Aaron Lt. Surge." Drew stated sweating as the spiky haired teacher looked at him.

"And why wasn't **I **informed about this!"

"I don't think anyone knew unless were at the ball yesterday sir…"

"Damn…the one time I should've gone to that thing…" the teacher mumbled but he was very impressed with how Kazuki was handling the moving objects. After a few more targets were gone and they had cleared the area they got to the final part of the course.

"…_.You have to be kidding me…who in the world created this weird thing! Are we actually suppose to cross it!" _the tiny dinosaur like pokemon asked looking at Kazuki and back to the third part of the training course.

"Well lets hope your vines can get a good grip…" Kazuki replied as he took a deep breath and lifted the small pokemon onto his back. "Just hold on tight okay? I'm sure we can get through this without falling…maybe a few times…" he added.

"_Hey wait a FEW times! I don't want to fall at all Kazu-"_

"No time to complain just go with it bulbasaur!"

Kazuki grimaced as he leapt onto one of the spinning cylinders and started running as fast as he could so the momentum wouldn't throw him off, he ran off the first one and leapt onto the second one and nearly stumbled falling off making the students gasp before he jumped again and landed on the third one fine, but his foot slipped and was heading for the pool.

"Bulbasaur vine whip onto the platform now!"

The pokemon released its vine whip once more and landed on the platform before the mushrooms.

"Well we're almost there bulbasaur….I'm just worried what these things can do…" Kazuki muttered.

"_Only one way to find out Kazuki…"_ Bulbasaur replied as he jumped onto the first mushroom and let out a surprised yelp when he bounced off of it and into the water under it.

"Ahahahahaha! Thanks for being the guinea pig bulbasaur!" Kazuki couldn't help but laugh at his grumbling pokemon as he poked his head out from the water and glowered at the snickering trainer. "come on we better hurry up!"

"_Hahaha…the others better not hear of this…" _Bulbasaur grumbled.

He quickly pulled himself up back onto the board and grabbed onto Kazuki as he backed up a bit and then leapt off the platform and bounced on the mushrooms well enough so he didn't end up bouncing right off of them and into the water all the way until the end where he stumbled at bit off the bouncy mushrooms and safely onto the other side.

"how was that sir?" Kazuki shouted from the other side bulbasaur got off his back and onto the ground himself. Lt. Surge rolled his eyes but looked at the digital stop watch he had on him.

"Not bad for your first time on the course maggot!" Lt. Surge shouted back before turning to face the other students who swallowed hard.

"Uh sir do you think we could have a bit of time to decide what pokemon we're going to use?" Snap asked nervously.

Lt. Surge gave them a look but folded his arms. "fine you maggots have five minutes to get your pokemon that you're going to use out and get in a line. No ifs, ands or buts! Understand! Remember you are being graded on not only how fast you get through the course but also on creativity and ingenuity."

"**Yes sir!"**

With that Lt. Surge went to do a quick check on the controls of the equipment while the students desperately brought out their pokemon to figure out which one would help them the most.

"Jeanette which pokemon can you use? Most of your pokemon can fly" Hiroshi said albeit worried looking at the magenta haired girl as she examined tapped her chin.

"That's true Hiroshi-kun…" she said quietly trying to decide frowning a bit before looking back at the prince and others. "which pokemon are you going to use?"

"Well I'll probably use sparky." Hiroshi replied scratching the mouse pokemon under its chin. "hey pikachu why don't you go to back to your master?" Kazuki's pikachu nodded and nuzzled Hiroshi before leaping off his shoulder and running around the obstacle course to meet his master on the other side.

"What about everyone else?" Hiroshi asked looking at the group.

"Umbreon for me." Gary replied grinning patting his faithful pokemon next to him.

"I have an idea with squirtle that would work. " May giggled cuddling her little water turtle pokemon.

"I thought you'd use Blaziken since it would be able jump the board easily not to mention fighting as well." Snap pointed out as his kecleon clung to his head.

"True…but Lt. Surge said we were being graded on how creative we can be with our pokemon." May replied still hugging the squirtle.

Misty sighed, "if I could get psyduck to use psychic better I could use him but…I'll probably use Starmie." She added.

"I'm going to use ditto, I've been working on new forms with it and this is a perfect opportunity to test them out. Right ditto?" Duplica grinned poking her jelly-blob of a pokemon in the stomach as it sat on her shoulder.

"I think Ambipom would be a good choice for me especially with his two tails." Dawn said bringing out the said purple monkey who danced around with its tails clapping. "when Zoey told me how different the obstacle course was this year I didn't think she meant this different."

"She's lucky, along with Drew and Tracey that they got it over with since they had gym at an earlier period." Misty sighed as she looked at one of her pokeballs.

"So did you figure out who you're going to use Jeanette?" Hiroshi asked.

Before Jeanette could reply Lt. Surge came back.

"Okay maggots! Line up one after the other! No pushing or shoving or your backside is going first!" he shouted.

It took a few minutes as the students scrambled around to get a spot that wasn't too near the front and trying not to get in trouble, to be forced into the front of the line. Surprisingly Jeanette stepped up to be in the front of the line, obviously figuring out what pokemon she was going to use.

"Okay missy, you're up. Remember speed is just as important as creativity and ingenuity." Lt. Surge stated. Seeing her nod he continued, "now choose your pokemon and go!"

"Let's show them spinarak!" Jeanette cried out tossing her pokeball up and soon a small spider pokemon appeared. Just as Jeanette was about to start a loud shriek that made the pokemon jump into Jeanette's arms and everyone suddenly jump away from the source of the scream, it even made Kazuki on the other side of the fell over in shock from the loud scream.

"**AAAAAHHHHHH! BUG!" **

"Uh…Mi…Misty?" Gary asked sweating looking at the girl frozen on the ground looking a bit blue in the face as her eyes were wide looking at the small spider in Jeanette's arms.

"Bug…bug…big…staring bug….." Misty mumbled shaking.

"Okay…Waterflower is out until she gets her head together…someone watch her to make sure she's gets back to normal." Lt. Surge said as May and Dawn helped the poor red head.

"….Uh Sir" Jeanette said getting Lt. Surge's attention.

"Yeah?" he asked turning to look at the purple haired girl.

" May I wait a bit for my spinark to calm down? He was rather frightened by the loud scream…" Jeanette replied pointing to her shivering pokemon in her arms making the teacher sweat.

" Sure…next kid is up…" He said looking at the gulping group as the next kid was pushed forward. Jeanette sighed trying to calm down her poor spider pokemon as the other girls were trying to get Misty to say at least a coherent sentence.

"I thought Misty was alright with bugs…at least some of them…" Hiroshi said wincing as the poor student slipped and fell into the mud hold, wiping the gunk off his eyes as his mankey was snickering until the student threw a clump of mud at him and a mud fight broke out between the two.

"HEY HEY HEY! Get up and complete the course you maggots! MOVE MOVE MOVE! Alright Raichu give 'em a little 'help' with their priorities. THUNDERBOLT!"

"_Hehehe I love my job time to focus kiddies!"_

The whole class winced as the thunderbolt came a hair's away from zapping the two fighting, but it did its job and quickly motivated the two to continue the course as Lt. Surge and his Raichu grinned at the student's hurried pace.

"Misty are you okay? I thought you had gotten better at your bug phobia…" May asked looking at the girl still hyperventilating. "I mean when Jeanette showed you her pokemon when we met her you didn't freak out!"

"I think I know why…" Dawn said, "I remember she telling me her sisters had dragged her to a beauty salon that had this special treatment…"

"and what would that treatment be?" Hiroshi asked.

"It was a spinark's string shot facial….I forgot the exact details but yeaah…" Dawn replied.

"That's harsh…." May mumbled, "come on Misty, Jeanette wouldn't let her pokemon hurt you besides it looks like you scared her spinark pretty well."

Misty just continued mumbling under her breath making the girls sigh as they try to get her back to normal.

"Well hopefully she'll be back normal by the pokemon battles after this, how long does she do this for?" Gary asked.

"Only a few minutes, she'll be back to normal in a bit." Dawn replied.

"Its about time maggot! You really need to learn how to focus in stead of playing around with your pokemon in the mud!" Lt. Surge shouted at the student.

The obstacle course continued for the rest of the period without any incident. Jeantte had finally got her spinark to calm down to complete the course and she impressed the teacher by have a time close to Kazuki's own time record. For the others they managed to pass with few incident…Duplica accidentally commanded ditto to transform into a plant pokemon that didn't have fine whip and ended up falling into the pool near the end of the course, Hiroshi missed a few targets when he used a sword against the targets. At the end of the class everyone was breathing heavily and sitting on the ground completely exhausted as a smirking Lt. Surge stood in front of them.

"Well maggots you did pretty decently for the new course that was built. Not all of you didn't do too badly but you all could've done better." He stated. "now hit the showers for your last test!"

"Yes Lt. Surge sir….." the class moaned out dragging their bodies off the ground and limping towards the lockers.

"Urgh I think he enjoys trying to find ways to make our limbs feel like jelly." Tracy groaned rubbing his arms once he and the other boys were back in the lockers.

"At least you did pretty well with your weapons…" Hiroshi said.

"Yeah I've been trying to improve and I think it showed today…I just hope I get a better score then last time." He replied rubbing his head. "at least we only have the last aptitude test that one I'm not worried about."

"Yeah all you and Snap have to worry about is getting a good picture of a pokemon without it seeing or hearing you." Gary replied.

"Well they do make it hard, like last time they made us look for ground pokemon in a imitation sandstorm." Tracy said. "I swear I got sand where I didn't think it was possible."

"Oh yeah that was fun, it took me hours to clean out every grain of sand out of my poor camera…" Snap grumbled remembered taking his camera a part and cleaning each and every inch of the device.

"Come on guys, after this we can hang out at the park with our pokemon and the girls." Hiroshi said smiling as he was buttoning his uniform top.

"Maybe this time Drew will get the guts to ask May out on an actual date." Gary said snickering

"Tracy you really think he'll be able to ask her out when he has his fangirls chasing after him?" Snap asked.

"Well he did ask May out to the dance…but then again there is Harley…" Gary added, "but I really don't think Harley would like may I mean doesn't he hate her for some unfathomable reason."

"Yeah Harley is someone I don't wanna try to figure out." Snap said and suddenly looked around. "hey where's Kazuki?"

The other boys stopped and looked around for the dark haired trainer.

"That's weird I know he came in with us…." Tracey said wondering where he disappeared to.

"Do you think he left while we were talking?" Gary asked.

"I think I saw him head to the bathroom. I'll go see if he's there, he might've left while we were talking." Hiroshi replied.

The blonde prince walked around the other boys and headed towards the bathroom and when walked past the corner separating the showers and sinks from the lockers he blinked. He saw Kazuki looking at the mirror and his eyes widen when he saw a flash of red eyes in the reflection that wasn't Kazuki. Shaking his head the image in the mirror was gone as if it was never there in the first place. Cautiously he moved closer to the other student.

"Kazuki?"

That seemed to snap Kazuki out of his stupor to turn and smile back at the blonde haired prince.

"Oh Hiroshi sorry, I just needed to wash my hands." The darker haired trainer said, making Hiroshi frown.

"Kazuki is everything okay?" Hiroshi asked, wondering if he should mention the brief moment he saw something in the mirror. Kazuki just blinked and shook his head.

"Yeah don't worry about me, come on we're going to be late for our last test." Kazuki replied as he walked pass the prince, who couldn't help but have a concerned look on his face watching the darker haired trainer head back to the lockers to get his belongings.

* * *

"I can't believed you did it again Harley!" May shouted furious looking at her opponent across the field she wanted to pull her hair out when her annoying rival had once again dressed up as her once more.

"What? Jealous I make this outfit look better on me then yourself?" Harley replied laughing girlishly making the girl more irritated. "Now let me show you who's the better coordinator! Cacturne darling give that oversized bug your bullet seed!"

"I'll show you who's the better coordinator Harley! Beautifly return the attack with silver wind and then aerial ace!"

"_I'll show you not to insult my mistress!" _Beautifly cried out, just as angry with the other coordinator as her trainer.

Fueled by that, she released a strong silver wind that blew back the bullet seeds hitting Cacturne and used Aerial ace into the silver wind making her wings sparkle as she landed the attack on the cactus pokemon throwing it back as the yellow bar on Harely's side diminished even more.

"Slow it down with cotton spore!"

"Dance around them beautifly then tackle!"

"Isn't it against the rules SOMEWHERE to cross-dress for the aptitude test?" Drew groaned out as he rubbed his head as he watched from the sidelines with the others. He was keeping his eyes on May and not even glancing over at Harley.

"My eyes they BURN!" Snap cried rubbing his eyes furiously. "men should NOT wear short skirts! Especially a guy like Harley! I had nightmares the **first **time he did it!"

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Misty groaned looking a bit green herself, "who still has to battle?"

"Let's see I haven't had my contest battle yet…" Dawn mumbled, "so me, Duplica, Jeanette and Kazuki!"

"Good luck you guys, I wonder who you'll be up against." Hiroshi said patting Sparky who cooed happily.

"You did well in your 2 on 2 battle Hiroshi." Kazuki said. "your charizard and butterfree has gotten stronger."

"Haha thanks Kazuki…its funny whenever our Charizards meet though. I swear whenever they meet they just have to see who's the toughest." The prince sighed.

Any more conversation was broken when one of the teachers were making the announcements for the next set of trainers to battle.

"Will the following please head down to field five for their pokemon battle aptitude test: Kazuki Taijiri, Duplica and Jeanette Marduk. Once there we will assign you to your fields for your battle and your opponent!"

"Good luck you guys. " Dawn said.

"Thanks Dawn, you're going to come watch our battles right?" Kazuki asked smiling at the blue haired coordinator.

"We will once May finishes her battle." Drew replied.

"Yeah I really wanna see how may does against Harely's cacturne again." Misty added looking at the scoreboard that showed only about a minute left in the contest battle. "it shouldn't be too long now."

"Cacturne! Come on get up sweetie!"

"That'll show you to insult me Harley! Great job Beautifly"

"Alright see you guys in a bit." Kazuki said waving to them before the three of them headed towards battle field five. All the while Duplica was muttering something under her breath.

"anyone but her…let me battle anyone but that girl…"

"Little sister who exactly are you talking about?" Jeanette asked raising an eyebrow at the teal haired girl.

"Just another student I don't want to battle…" she muttered.

"Is that student a tough opponent?"

"No…more like a really bad nuisance…" Duplica retorted back.

Jeanette and Kazuki looked at each other and shrugged before finally arriving at the designated battlefield that they were called to. In front of them a tall dark haired woman with red eyes holding a clipboard as she observed the three walking towards her. She was wearing a red long sleeved to that went down to her hips and wore tight black pants with red boots.

"Kazuki Tajiri, Duplice and Jeanette Marduk?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am" the three replied in unison.

The woman marked something down on her clipboard and motioned for them to follow her to a table where three other people were waiting for them. Kazuki suddenly felt tension from the two girls next to him as they neared the other three trainers. Jeanette seemed to be glaring at one of the other opponents as Duplica groaned loudly muttering about bad luck. Before he could ask what was wrong with the girls the woman stopped at the table and turned to face all six of them.

" My name is Sabrina, I am in charge of designating where your battles will take place and what kind of battle they will be. I will now call out who is to battle whom, once that is done one person from each group will draw a piece of paper out of the box." Sabrina stated, indicating to the purple box on the table. "on each slip of paper is a different type a battle. It could range from one on one to a full six on six to double battle. Everyone ready?"

She saw all six kids nod and then flipped a piece of paper over her clipboard and starting pairing the students up.

"Duplica Marduk vs Makina Kanae"

"Dammit!" Duplica said loudly cursing as she could only groan as she looked up at the eager blue eyed, dark red haired girl, "hello Makina…."

The girl grinned as she pointed a finger to the ditto trainer making the girl blink.

"This time I've improved my technique and show you that I'm the better ditto trainer Duplica!" she stated grinning broadly as the other girl's eye twitched.

"Don't think you're the only one that made improvements Makina!" Duplica scowled back at the trainer.

"One of you will now come forward and pick a paper from the box to determine your battle." Sabrina said pointing to the box. Before Makina could move Duplica stormed over and shoved her hand inside the box and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Sabrina. She opened the piece of paper and nodded before tossing it back into the box and writing on her clipboard.

"The battle between Duplica Marduk and Makina Kanae will take place on battlefield five as a one on one match. Please wait for the assignments of the other battles before you head to your battlefield." Sabrina said. "next is Kazuki Taijiri and Junichi Masuda."

"Its Jun!" the blonde haired shouted loudly waving his arms around.

Sabrina was unfazed by the outcry and just pointed to the box.

Jun grinned as he walked up to the box and dove his arm into the box, rummaging around for a few seconds before pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to Sabrina.

"The battle between Kazuki Taijiri and Junichi Masuda will be on battlefield six as a double battle." The teacher stated marking it down on her clipboard. Then she turned to the last two but before she could say anything the last girl stepped up with a knowing smirk on her face as she faced Jeanette who only gave her a scathing glare.

"Now now Jeanette what is with that sour look all over your pretty little face hmm?" the girl said silkily, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she put her hands on her hips.

Jeanette took a deep breath and gave the girl back a cold glare.

"I was surprised to see you're still here. Daddy pay off for your little troubles again?" Jeanette replied in a sickly sweet voice.

"Now now, that kind of attitude doesn't suit you Jeanette although I thought you would've been the one to stay away from here after your little failure." She said cooing.

"You have no idea what you're talking about Giselle…" the purple haired girl replied bristling.

Before either of the two girls could continue their banter Sabrina cleared her throat loudly getting their attention.

"If you two are done I'd like to finish this before the period ends." She said. The two girls threw each other one last glare before turning to Sabrina. "the final match up is now between Jeanette Marduk and Giselle Lemouri."

Not needing to be told Jeanette stepped up to the box and picked up a piece of paper and handed it to Sabrina.

"The last battle with be taken on battlefield 7 between Jeanette Marduk and Giselle Lemouri will be a two on two match. You may now head to your designated battlefields." Sabrina said walking off.

"So you're the new guy that everyone has been talking about huh?" Jun said eyeing Kazuki. "I don't see what's so special about you to be chosen by Sir Aaron. So you have the aura thing big deal what's so special about it?" the blonde haired boy added shrugging off-handily

"The aura is a unique power that can only be harnessed by a selective few and is very hard to control and use right. It takes years of practice especially-" Kazuki said but Jun just waved it off.

"Yeah yeah whatever I'll show you some real power on the battle field and show you who really should've been trained under Sir Aaron!" Jun stated grinning at him.

"….You're rather confident you're win aren't you." Kazuki stated following the blonde to their battlefield.

"Care to show me how bad you've gotten Jeanette?" Giselle said as they got to their battlefield.

"You ready to show me the new pokemon daddy bought you because your previous ones kept losing for you?" Jeanette shot back.

"Trainers ready?" Sabrina's voice echoed throughout the arena, "then begin…"

_Battlefield #5 Duplica Vs Makina_

"Go ditto!"

"Let's go Ichigo!"

Out of the two pokeballs popped out two dittos glaring at each other.

"I've gotten Ichigo to learn how to transform into stronger pokemon Duplica!" Makina stated folding her arms proudly.

"Wow so that means you stopped using the same pokemon against the opponent huh?" Duplica replied almost bored.

"Hey! I'll show you! Ichigo transform into Steelix!"

One of the purple ditto's glowed and soon started to grow large and elongate until it the glow disappeared and a steelix roared in place of the first ditto.

"Let's hope you've been studying more then just thinking you can mimic….ditto transform into a Steelix as well!" Duplica commanded.

"Hey now who's copying who!" Makina shouted glaring at Duplica while the teal haired girl smirked back.

"I'm just going to show you how a real ditto trainer works." She replied.

"Grrrrr come on Ichigo attack with Iron Tail!" Makina shouted.

"Use bind to counter it and then use fire fang!" Duplica commanded.

Makina's Steelix's tail glowed brightly and swung the tail at the other but steelix dodged the attack and wrapped up Ichigo tightly as fire began to form at his mouth before it was clamped down on the metallic snake's body making it roar.

"No! Ichigo get out of there by using screech!"

"_I'll show you my trainer is better!"_ Ichigo growled before letting out a loud screech forcing the other steelix to let go.

"Good now give it your dragon breath!"

"Ditto use sandstorm to block it!"

Duplica's Steelix shook off the screech and summoned up a large sandstorm that distorted the dragonbreath and obscuring the vision.

"Damn it where are you?" Makina growled looking around the battlefield trying to find Duplica's steelix.

"Now use fire fang again and show that ditto who's better!" Duplica shouted.

"What!" Makina cried out as she tried to look at the battlefield, but the intensity of the sandstorm made her cover her eyes. The only thing she could hear was a loud roar of one of the steelix and in the next moment saw something fly out of the sandstorm and crashing in front of her as the sandstorm diminished revealing a smirking steelix and Duplica looking back at her and her downed steelix.

"Ichigo! Come on get up!" Makina shouted and her Steelix groaned as it managed to get up for a bit, "that's it now use Dragon breath one more time!

"use your own dragon breath ditto!" Duplica commanded.

The two steelix's roared as the greenish fire breath gathered in their mouths before being blasted at each other. The two attacks pushing against, trying to over-power the other.

"Give it all you got Ichigo! We'll show her this time!"

"We can do this Diito! we've trained with Hiroshi-sama to show how much stronger we are! No one is going to underestimate us!"

Duplica's steelix roared loudly and the dragon breath seemed in intensify and slowly pushing Makina's own pokemon's attack back. After a few more moments, Duplica let out a happy shout when her Steelix's attack starting to push Ichigo's back.

"Come on Ichigo! Push! You can beat her!" Makina shouted.

"You're doing great Diito keep it up!" Duplica cheered and grinned when the dragon breath finally made contact with Ichigo making it cry out as he took the full blunt of the attack and fell backwards with swirls in its eyes.

"No! Ichigo!" Makina cried falling to her knees. "return…" she added dejectedly.

"_I told you my mistress was the better ditto trainer!"_ Duplica's ditto roared as he glowed and transformed back into its original form and fell into his trainer's arm as she hugged him happily.

"Great job ditto you really showed her!" the teal haired trainer said before looking over at Makina and walked over there. Once she stood in front of her the dark red haired girl looked up at Duplica.

"As much as I hate to admit, you've gotten better then the first time we battled. You actually took my advice and studied up." She said. Makina got a starry look in her eyes as she got up immediately an grabbed Duplica's hand holding onto it tightly.

"Of course I took your advice Duplica-sempai!" Makina stated proudly.

"Sem-sempai!" Duplica said a bit bewildered staring at the girl wondering if she had heard the other girl right.

"Yes sempai! I've always admired you being the only ditto trainer in my school and I want to be just as good as you! I take all the advice you give me to heart!" Makina replied.

"Uh well…ok yeah…good battle Makina…" Duplica said kind of thrown off by the sudden enthusiasm of the girl she had just battled. They both left the battlefield just in time for Duplica to run into the others.

"Duplica, sorry we missed your battle! How did it go?" Hiroshi asked smiling at his bodyguard. Duplica grinned as she gave them the peace sign.

"I won!" she replied happily.

"Who were you up against?" Tracey asked.

"Makina Kanae, but this time she improved. She didn't try any tricks like turning into legendary pokemon." Duplica replied. "and she actually calls me her sempai…"

Misty laughs, "I guess there was a reason she became a ditto trainer like you Duplica huh?"

"What I'm thankful for is that she isn't arrogant as she was before. Come on let's check out Kazuki's battle." The teal haired girl said as they headed over to battlefield number 6.

"Who's he up against anyway?" Gary asked.

"Junichi Masuda." Duplica replied.

"Him? Oh man that should be an intense battle…Jun's always wanted to be trained by someone like Sir Aaron and then to have someone like Kazuki just appear and get trained must really bug him." Dawn said shaking her head at her old friend's attitude.

"Yeah, he even got under Kazuki's skin when he started saying things about the aura skill." Duplica stated.

Hiroshi winced. "Ooo that's not something to do around Kazuki, he worked really hard to get his aura under control and use it efficiently."

"Well we don't want to miss this battle…" Drew said.

"Hey isn't Jeanette having her battle as well?" May asked, Duplica frowned as she nodded.

"Yea she's up against Giselle Lemouri I don't know the exact history between the two but it was really tense between them." Duplica replied. Hiroshi froze.

"Giselle Lemouri? Are you sure?" He asked.

"Hiroshi do you know something about Giselle and Jeanette's history?" Drew asked.

"A bit more of the stuff I over heard from the adults and from what my brother use to tell me before well…you know." Hiroshi replied. "You see…Giselle is one of those spoiled rich girls that tends to reply on her dad's money and company for her wants and needs."

"Wow one of those rich brats?" Drew asked dryly.

"Rich smart brat…" Hiroshi corrected before sighing, "you see her father wanted to form connections with important people and tried to arrange a union between Satoshi and Giselle but thankfully mother and father were highly against that idea, especially when they know of the rumors of Giselle's family."

"Like what exactly Hiroshi?" Gary asked concerned. Hiroshi just shrugged.

"Rumors that they're involved with all sorts of illegal stuff but there hasn't been any proof of it. But Giselle's father didn't take too kindly to that. After that we haven't heard anything from him." Hiroshi added.

"Okay well what does this have to do with Jeanette and Gieselle's tension?" May asked.

"Well when Giselle got it in her head that she would be marrying a 'prince', she made it her mission to get my brother to like her. But that was impossible with Jeanette always around him." Hiroshi replied, "Giselle would resort to all sorts of lengths to get Jeanette away from Satoshi, but none of them worked. The problem was the plans she had got more and more dangerous."

"Wow…she really is determined to get something…" Duplica said.

"There was something else that happened while I was away but Jeanette refused to tell me about it but I think whatever happened that day was the one that really got between those two." Hiroshi finished just as they arrived at the battlefield in the middle of Kazuki and Jun's double battle.

_Battledfield #6 Junichi Matsuda VS Kazuki Taijiri…_

On Jun's side he had his Empoleon and heracross while Kazuki brought out Sceptile and pikachu.

"Heracross use mega horn, Emploleon steel wing aim for the pikachu!" Jun shouted.

"Sceptile use your tail to throw pikachu in the air then use bullet seed and slam on heracross! Pikachu aim a thunderbolt at both heracross and Emlopleon!" Kauzki commanded.

"_You got it Kazuki!" _Pikachu shouted hopping on Sceptile's tail.

"_Give them a nice shock Pikachu."_ Sceptile said smirking as he tossed the tiny mouse pokemon into the air, just before Empleon could get to it.

Sceptile then fired a bullet seed at the flying bug pokemon's eyes throwing making it unable to see for a few seconds. It never saw Sceptiles tail slamming into him hard, throwing him to the ground and skidding back. Pikachu in the air quickly charged up quickly and fired a thunderbolt at the penguin and downed bug pokemon zapping them good and smoking as Pikachu fell down and was caught by Sceptile.

"Come on get up Heracross you too Empoleon! Show them what you can really do!" Jun shouted, but as the pokemon were struggling to get up Kazuki gave out commands to his pokemon.

"Sceptile! use agility then use your tail to propel yourself into the air then use slam again on heracross! Pikachu volt tackle Empoleon!"

"Empoleon get up and use Hydro cannon on pikachu! Heracross-" Jun tried to give a command to his heracross but Sceptile was too fast and was already in the air and slammed his tail into heracross, creating a crater in the filed instantly knocking him out.

Sceptile smirked as he folded his arms proud at what he had done.

"Dammit! Come on empoleon is all up to you!" Jun stated.

The metal penguin pokemon managed to get up to his feet and was summoning water brightly colored water sphere and launched it at pikachu.

"Sceptile intercept it with leaf blade before it hits pikachu!'

The grass pokemon moved quickly again as the blades on his arm grew longer and glowed as he raised his arms and took the hydro cannon, struggling to keep it from hitting the yellow mouse.

"_Thanks Sceptile!" _Pikachu shouted as he rushed passed him and soon made contact with Empoleon throwing it back as pikachu back flipped onto the field to see if the pokemon survived it.

Sceptile growled and moved his arms to quickly slam the hydro cannon into the ground creating a bit of an explosion as the dust from the battlefield kicked up, and threw Sceptile back a few feet.

When the dust cleared Sceptile had a few marks on him from the explosion of the hydro cannon hitting the ground but looked fine nonetheless. What everyone was more interested was the state of empoleon, a few more seconds clicked by before the dust settled and emopleon was lying on his back swirls in his eyes.

"Winner of the match is Kazuki Taijiri!" the referee shouted.

Pikachu cried happily as he ran back to his trainer and into his arms as Sceptile walked back to him as well.

"You guys did great. You worked really well together." He said scratching under pikachu's chin and used the other free hand to pat Sceptile's head. Kazuki looked up when he heard footsteps and saw Jun standing in front of him almost glaring at him.

"Hey good battle" Kazuki said as he held out a hand for Jun to shake. The blonde took it but looked like he was trying to crush his hand, but Kazuki didn't seemed phased and didn't even wince.

"You may have won this time but I swear I will prove that I'm a better trainer then you to be the apprentice of Sir Aaron!" he stated boldly making Kazuki blink as Jun walked away.

"is he always like that?" the confused trainer could only ask as he returned Sceptile and pikachu settled on his shoulder.

"He's a bit eccentric and obsessive about a few things so yes?" Dawn replied laughing a bit.

All of a sudden there was a loud explosion that caught their attention.

_Battlefield # 7 Jeanette Marduk VS Giselle Lemouri_

"That came from Jeanette's battlefield!" Duplica cried out as they turned their attention to the battlefield and just saw a pokemon smoking as it fell from the air and crashed to the ground. They all ran to the battlefield and stared at Jeanette running towards the fallen Trophis smoking to the unconscious graveler on the other side.

"Both Graveler and Trophius are unable to battle! Trainers choose your next pokemon!" the referee cried out.

"Trophius!" Jeanette cried running to her pokemon. "are you okay?"

The flying plant pokemon groaned weakly as it raised its head and gently nuzzled Jeanette's head.

"_I should've tried harder to throw that rotten rock off of me before it used that attack…I'm sorry mistress…"_ Trophius mumbled.

"You did your job well Graveler, return." Giselle said silkily returning her fallen pokemon as she glanced up and seemed to relish with the pained look on Jeanette's face. "well that was a quick battle wasn't it Jeanette?"

Jeanette took a deep breath and stood up giving the arrogant girl across from her a chilling glare.

"Rest now Trophius you performed excellent, we'll beat her…." She said softly returning Trophius to his pokeball and returning to her side.

"Awww is little bug-girl sad here pathetic pokemon couldn't survive a little boom?" Giselle taunted.

"You **purposely** had your graveler grab on to Trophius and do a point blank explosion!" Jeanette replied darkly.

"Excuses, excuses just like always. Now put up or shut up…" Giselle sneered throwing out a pokeball,

"Vulpix let's burn them to ashes!"

"Show them how strong you are Lileep!"

Giselle laughed haughtily," you might as well give up now bug-girl. There is no way any of your pokemon can beat my cute little Vulpy."

Jeanette couldn't help but smirk making Giselle frown.

"Don't underestimate me and my pokemon Giselle! We've trained for situations like this!"

"Yeah right! Vulpix finish this fast with a flamethrower!"

"_One plant turned to ashes coming up!"_ Vulpix said smirking like her trainer and opened her mouth and let out a flamethrower heading straight for Lileep.

"Lileep rock polish to dodge and then show your ancient power!" Jeanette commanded.

Lileep shimmered for a bit just as the flamethrower was getting close but cutting it close by a few seconds Lileep disappeared from its spot only to reappear behind the tiny fox pokemon and blast it from behind with its attack sending it flying before hitting the ground.

Giselle stared shocked before she scowled at the other trainer.

"Get up Vulpix! I know you can fry that overgrown weed use quick attack!"

"Stand your ground Lileep and take it!"

The fox pokemon dashed towards the grounded flower pokemon and made contact. Lileep flinched but soon the petals grabbed vulpix keeping it in place.

"What! Hey let go of my Vulpix bug-girl!"

"Lileep point blank ancient power now!"

The flower pokemon's center started to gather up energy before it unleashed it at the immobilized pokemon letting it go once the ancient power made contact making it fly back, bouncing a few times on the ground.

"Still think that I'm going to be easy to beat! Just because you have a fire pokemon doesn't mean I can't counter your attacks!" Jeanette said.

"Come on Vulpix focus! Finish this off with fireblast!"

"Lileep use earth power!"

The two pokemon glared angrily at each other determined not to fail their trainers as they powered up for their strongest attacks. The whole stadium floor was shaking as cracks started to appear at the on the field and rocks started to burst upward rapidly like vines while Vulpix was finally ready and was about to launch the fire blast at Lileep when a deep crack appear underneath its paws and rocks came through the ground, throwing it off course just as the fox pokemon released the attack. Lileep couldn't move and felt the blazing inferno make contact with it and throwing it backwards just as the earth power made contact with vulpix throwing it back as well.

Both girls were staring at their pokemon who were down, wanting their pokemon to get up.

"Lileep please get up!"

"Come on Vulpix get up and win this for me!"

The referee waited for any movement and just as it looked like he was about to declare the battle a tie, a half scorched lileep struggle to stand up on its base with a determined look in its eyes. The right side of it was badly charred by the fireblast but thankfully the earth power had managed to knock Vulpix off balance so Lileep didn't take the full blunt of the attack. Once Lileep stood up complete the referee blew his whistle.

"Vulpix is unable to battle! The winner is Jeanette Marduk!"

"NO! damn you bug-girl you got lucky with your attacks!" Giselle said furiously returning her pokemon angrily. "next time I'll knock out all your pokemon before you can even hit mine!"

Jeanette walked up to her Lileep before she looked back at the furious girl.

"I would suggest training harder and not getting your father to buy you 'stronger' pokemon Giselle." Jeanette said coldly before patting her pokemon's head. "you did an amazing job Lileep, take a nice long rest and I'll take you to the pokemon center." She added gently before returning her pokemon to her ball and walking back to her friends.

"That was amazing Jeanette! I was really worried about you handling the Vulpix!" May exclaimed throwing her arms up in the air. "you handled the fire attacks really well with your counter attacks!"

"Where did you even GET a lileep! " Gary asked curious.

"You see many things when traveling and I just happened to get lucky…" Jeanette replied smiling. "but I feel a lot better after taking Giselle down a few hundred notches…"

"Hey Jeanette what is between you and Giselle anyway?" Tracey asked.

"Oh I think the bell's about to ring, we better get our things and head back home." Jeanette said in a voice that said there was going to be no more conversation about Giselle and herself.

"Yeah I told you guys, she doesn't want to talk about it now or ever…." Hiroshi said shaking his head.

"Still I wonder what's with the intensity between the two. " Snap wondered but Drew shook his head.

"If I were you, I'd stop thinking about it now…getting between two girls like Jeanette and Giselle with 'issues' is not a good thing for a guy's health." The green haired coordinator said.

"Come on guys cheer up! we had a long day and I say we go get some ice cream for getting through another semester of the aptitude tests." Dawn said grinning broadly

"Oh I'm up for that! We haven't been there in a while." Misty said grinning. "I miss eating those parfaits they have there. Soooo good…."

"I agree an ice cream after this long day is absolutely perfect! I wanna try their monster fudge ice cream" May added licking her lips.

"Uh sorry guys but I can't…I have a meeting to go to…" Kazuki said. "maybe next time guys, I'll see you later"

The others just watched as Kazuki walked off to his locker before disappearing.

"Hiroshi do you have any idea where his meeting is? Did your dad say anything?" Gary asked.

"Not really…it could be aura guardian stuff." The blonde prince replied.

"I'm sure Kazuki know's what he's doing, you don't need to worry about him." Jeanette said. "now I'd like to see this ice cream place?"

"oh sure you'll love it Jeanette! They have all sorts of flavors and are always coming up with new ones." Dawn said.

Hiroshi couldn't help but wonder what where Kazuki was going exactly for his meeting, but he couldn't help but think back to the incident with the mirror reflection.

'_What was it that I saw in that mirror…'_ Hiroshi thought to himself as he followed his friends out of the school.

* * *

"Thanks Charizard we can land right here…" Kazuki said getting off his dragon's body and onto the ground. He looked up at the area they had arrived in. It was some sort of main chamber for the Tree of Beginning.

"_Kazuki why are you here?" _Pikachu asked looking at his trainer as they headed towards one of the tunnels.

"Because I need to meet with mew about something…its about those things Pikachu." Kazuki replied unconsciously rubbing his arms. "I'm lucky I can make them disappear but still…"

"_Don't worry master, Pikachu and I won't let anything happen to you."_ Charizard stated firmly staying close to the dark haired trainer's side.

Kazuki gave the two pokemon by his side a relieved smile and just as he was about to enter the tunnels when Pikachu and Charizard froze and got into a fighting position and looked around.

"Guys? What' happened?" Kazuki asked looking around.

"_We could've swore we felt someone watching us…" _Charizard said frowning keeping a sharp eye for anyone.

"_I thought I heard giggling…"_ Pikachu added.

All of a sudden a pink ball floated in front of them and soon a familiar pink cat appeared in front of them.

"_Hello Kazuki….how was your trip?" _Mew asked cutely.

Kazuki couldn't help but smile as he took on of Mew's paws in his own and gently shook it. "It was fine…but would you mind taking us a place where we can relax and talk please?"

Mew nodded and concentrated, enveloping Kazuki, Charizard, Pikachu and itself in a pink bubble and disappeared and appeared in a lush green forest area with a lake a pile of toys.

"_Is this good enough? You may release your other friends so they can relax." _Mew said.

"Alright, come on out everyone!" Kazuki shouted releasing three pokemon into the area.

Sceptile blinked as he looked around as did bulbasaur curious on where they were but when they saw the forest area they couldn't help but have a smile brought onto their faces. The other pokemon that was released was a jackel looking pokemon with black paws, and blue fur standing up on his hind legs, he looked around confused.

"_Where are we? What is this place?" _He asked looking around and saw pikachu running over to him as Ash threw the last pokeball near the lake releasing his last pokemon which happened to be Lapras.

"_This is the Tree of Beginning Lucario. Kazuki came here to speak with mew privately."_ The mouse pokemon replied.

"_I see…I shall go explore the area, I'm rather curious about this place. Care to join me?" _Lucarioo asked as Pikachu nodded walking off with Lucario.

Charizard on immediately seeing Lapras flew over to the edge of the lake to sit with the water pokemon. Lapras smiled gently at the orange dragon gently nudging his head into his, making the dragon have a red blush on his face. Bulbasaur and Sceptile decided to check out the different plants and trees in the area they were in, curious on what kind of plants grew here.

"_So what did you wish to speak to me about Kazuki?"_ Mew asked as they sat on a ledge overlooking the area.

"You know about the gift you've given me and how I was marked so that the guardians of the tree wouldn't attack me?" Kazuki asked.

"_Yes I know of that, why?"_ Mew asked. The pink cat pokemon watched as Kazuki removed his uniform jacket and folded up his sleeves to show his upper arm. Kazuki concentrated a bit on his aura and soon his right arm was engulfed with a blue light and symbols started to appear. On his arm there Mew saw not only its mark but the marks of several others.

"_You made contact with several legendaries during your travels and they marked you?"_ Mew asked surprised.

"It started with Lugia…he called me the 'Chosen One" for some reason." Kazuki said pointing to the mark that looked like a silver feather. "then there was Latios and Latias…they were actually really nice…" Kazuki added indicating to the blue and red hand prints from said pokemon. But it's the last mark that worries me…because I haven't met that pokemon yet or even seen it…"

Mew frowned as it looked towards the last mark and its eyes widened staring at the arm, even reaching out and grasping Kazuki's arm.

"_I don't believe it…kazuki how did you get this mark?"_ Mew asked, not knowing whether to be amazed or horrified.

"I…I'm not too sure…something happened… I think it was a dream? But everything was weird…" Kazuki stated. "Mew do you know who's mark that is?"

"_Yes…it's the mark of one of the legendary dragons…the dragon of darkness…Giratina…"_

_

* * *

_**Well what did you think? Review please!**_  
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